Soldier
by Joustingforcancer
Summary: Seventeen year old Korwin Nalan had always known he would live and die on the streets of Celka City. But one fateful afternoon will change his life forever, sending him across the galaxy as an infantryman in the Rebel Alliance. Please Post Reviews!
1. Soldier Prologue

"Please state your rank, name and outfit."

"Corporal Korwin Nalan, 3rd Platoon, Krayt Company. We were attatched to General Oreth's light infantry regiment."

"And for how long did you serve with the Rebel Alliance?"

"Four years, two months, one week, and two days." Scattered laughter could be heard throughout the comfortable sitting room in which the interview was taking place.

"Those are some pretty exact numbers Mr. Nalan." The interviewer, a lovely young Twilek woman with vibrant violet skin, said.

The human she was interviewing grinned, his white teeth a stark contrast against his dark-skinned face. Running a hand over his graying, corn-rowed hair, he said, "I have a good head for numbers."

"Of course. Now, as you are aware, this interview will be recorded in it's entirety and released unedited in the documentary series, "Soldier: The Anonymous Heroes of the Galactic Civil War", as outlined in the privacy waiver that you signed this morning."

"Yes, I am. Young lady, you can begin when you like. I have a dinner tonight, and I don't like to miss dinner." Another round of laughter was heard as Korwin patted his slightly rounded belly.

The interviewer shifted slightly in her seat, and then looked down at her datapad. Glancing back up, she said, "Please, start by telling us about your background. What did you do before the war?"

Korwin looked at each of the holo-recorders in the room, before sighing and replying, "I was born on Juno IV in Celka City. My mama was fifteen years old, living with her grandparents, and my old man was a gang member. We lived on the northwest side of town, in a place called Tides."

"And what was your early childhood like?" Asked the Twilek woman.

"I don't really remember a whole lot of it. I remember my mom and dad fighting a lot. We were very poor, because they had two more kids after me. It wasn't all bad though. Not until I was nine."

The interviewer stared intently at Korwin for a few seconds, waiting for him to elaborate. When he didn't, she gently prompted him. "What happened when you were nine?"

Korwin shifted uncomfortably in his seat and frowned. Then the look was gone, and he was once more confident and composed. "I woke up one morning, and my dad was gone. After that...I was the man of the house. I had to help mama take care of the kids. She worked down on the loading docks in southwest as a secretary, down in the flats. They didn't pay near enough though, so I had to put in work to...supplement her income."

"How did you manage that? You were too young to get a job."

"I did the only thing I could do; I hustled, and sold Rhondis buds. There was spice to sell also, glimmersticks and what not. But I didn't like pushing that shit. I had friends OD on both. So I stuck with Rhondis buds, playing pazaak, saabac, things like that."

"How did you go from a petty criminal in the only major city on a little known rim-world, to a soldier in the Galactic Rebel Alliance?"

"I killed a man."

The interviewers eyes widened momentarily, and she took a moment to recover. When she did, she said, "I beg your pardon, did you say you killed a man?"

Korwin nodded. "Yeah."

Now interested, the interviewer leaned forward and asked, "And how did that work out?"

"Well, I had just finished this deal, and had to buy my little sister some shoes for school..."


	2. Soldier 01

On the isolated outer rim world of Juno IV, in the temperate rainforests and mountainous coastal regions of the north, lay a city. The only city. Celka City. Stretching nearly forty miles north to south, from the seedy Tides district in the northwest, raised on great durasteel platforms over the tide flats that the ocean occupied for half the day, to the Flats in southwest, where the loading docks and red light districts were. Both districts were gloomy examples of social and economical neglect, with crime rampant, and the dull gray durasteel buildings nearly identical in shape. The only thing that gave them character was the colorful graffiti that gang members used to stake out their territory.

Climbing east, up the foothills of Sekbhan Mountain, was the Midlands district, where most of the middle class lived and worked, and went about their daily business. The houses here were typically made of finer materials, and were fair to look at. People dressed well, and the area was well policed by the Celka Security Force.

Once you passed the foothills, you reached the Climbing City, the Mountainside district, home of Celka City's elite. The buildings were wonderous sculptures of transparisteel and other exotic metals, made just as much to look at as to live in. People there were wealthy, and seldom had to worry about where their next meal would come from, or how they would pay for their homes. Not so with the people of the Tides and the Flats.

In the Tides, everyone was poor. And if you had money, you wouldn't for long. No matter where you were from. "Look kid, you asked where to get the good shit, so if you want it, this is it. Take it or leave it."

The young man from Celka City's wealthy Mountainside District looked at the transparent baggy of Rhondis buds. "That they are of high quality I don't doubt, but 125 imperial credits? I have a friend up on Mountainside that can get me a buddy-discount on a quarter ounce for 100."

The young dark-skinned human shrugged and put the sack away. "That's cool, man. The next guy'll just be twenty-five credits higher than you. Ain't gonna find buds like these anywhere up in your neighborhoods."

The rich kid's girlfriend now leaned in and whispered something in his ear. He sighed, and said, "You're sure that it's worth the extra credits? And the bag looked a little thin."

"Best smoke around this city, and the sack weighs man. Seven grams, I'll show you right now." The dealer began reaching inside his loose green jacket, but the rich kid stopped him.

"No, no, that's okay. Here." The kid pulled out 125 credits and handed them over. "I'll take it."

The dealer quickly pocketed the money, pulled the sack out, and handed it over. "Enjoy that shit man, and don't be cruising in that fancy speeder of yours after you smoke it. That's some powerful shit."

The kid pocketed the herb and thanked the dealer, before hopping in his speeder with his girlfriend and driving away from Tides as fast as he could.

Korwin watched him go, a smile on his face and money in his pants pocket. Few things gave him more pleasure than stiffing a rich kid out of a gram and charging him five creds over the regular going price. Grinning and shaking his head as he turned and walked away, his thoughts turned to family. He'd made over eight hundred credits today, but most of it would go to helping his mother pay the rent on their dingy apartment in northwest Tides. His little sister also needed a new pair of shoes.

Korwin headed for the Tides market platform, an outdoor marketplace that was raised higher off of the tide flats than the rest of the district. As he arrived, he heard the loud hustle and bustle of a busy marketplace, and reveled in the applied anonymity that such a large crowd of distracted shoppers brought. He wove his way through the churning throng of early afternoon bargain hunters to the large stand that he usually got shoes from. He could get a good deal here. "Faroul, I need a pair for my sister."

The fat orange Twilek that sat behind the register grinned, showing off his pointed teeth, and said, "I have just the thing for a ten year-old girl." He bent down behind the register counter, and came back up a moment later with a white shoe box. He opened it and showed the contents to Korwin. Inside was a pair of new white shoes, with small powder blue designs swirling down the sides. "Think she'll like these?"

Korwin nodded his head, "Yeah, those'll be perfect. How much?"

Faroul didn't hesitate. "For your beautiful little sister my friend...twenty-five credits."

Korwin raised an eyebrow. "That's it? Just twenty-five? No haggling?"

Faroul's lekku shifted in a gesture that was lost on Korwin, and he replied, "You are very poor. I do not haggle with poor people. But I sell to you because I like you. And because you carry a blaster."

Korwin laughed and handed over the credits. He picked up the shoebox, and said, "Thanks Faroul, I owe you one." Korwin walked away from the booth, purchase in hand, headed for home.

Faroul grinned again, his pointed teeth more prominent than ever. "I'll remember that manling!" He shouted, as Korwin disappeared into the sea of sentience that was the marketplace.

* * *

"So being a criminal was less of a selfish act than it may have seemed at the time.." The interviewer shifted in her seat, reclining a bit and crossing her shapely legs.

"I wasn't a criminal. I was a family man. There were certain things that had to be provided for us to exist as a family. Mama didn't make enough to provide those things. So I helped."

"Were there other avenues open to you at the time, or did you feel that this was the only way to make ends meet."

Korwin thought for a moment and then replied, "I suppose, that I didn't really have any other examples to go by, you know. It's uh...You know, there were probably other things I could have done. I'm sure there were, but at the time, I just didn't know how to do anything else. It was accessible, it was easy for me, and I was immediately successful at it." Korwin reached over to a nearby table and picked up a glass of water, which he sipped from, before setting it gently back on the table.

"So after you bought the shoes, you headed home."

"Well, yes and no. I was on my way, but I was intercepted."

* * *

"Hey, Korwin...come here for a minute."

Korwin stopped in his tracks, and looked to his right, where the voice had come from. Sitting twenty feet away on a pile of old driftwood pallets, was one of his best friends, Jurius Marken. "Juri, what's up?" He called as he approached.

"Nothing man, just saw you walking, thought I'd talk with you." Juri hopped off his pile of pallets and met Korwin halfway.

Korwin smiled at his friend and said, "Cool, let's go."

The pair conversed as they walked, meandering about here and there as they talked. "So I was thinking about going up to Mountainside, check out some of the cantina's up there. You up for it?"

Korwin glanced at his friend for a moment, and then turned his eyes forward again. "Why not. Might hit up one of them rich girls. See about something." He grinned and looked down at the shoe box in his hands. "Hey, look man, I gotta go home first. School starts in four days, and I just got my little sister these new shoes. Check these out." Korwin opened the box, and Juri nodded his approval.

"Yeah, she'll definitely love those man. She loves everything you get her."

The time passed slowly, and the scenery never changed from the dingy gray metal buildings, none taller than three stories, that stood on the twenty foot high platform over the tide pools of Celka City. They werestillclose to a mileaway from Korwin's building,when they rounded a corner and Juri ranstraightinto a Celka Security Officer's chest. Juri wasn't the smallest guy in the world, standing close to six feet, but the officer dwarfed him by at least six inches.. The big man glared down at him and said, "Watch where you're going you sith-spawned street urchin!"

Juri went red in the face, and responded by spitting a large gob of phlegm onto the man's face, and snarling,"Fuck you!"

The officersmiled at him menacingly as he wiped the mucus off his face with the back of his gloved hand.He pulled his stun baton out of it's loop on his utility belt. He didn't advance immediately, but instead called over his shoulder, "Rhan, come here, we've got troublemakers."

Korwin and Juri both glanced behind the man, and saw another uniformed man approaching, not as big as the first, a stun baton in his hand. Korwin glanced around and saw an alley way nearby. Juri was standing firm, glaring hard at the now advancing security officer. "Juri, run!" Shouted Korwin, and he shoved his friend hard to get him moving. Juri needed little encouragement, as he knew just as well as Korwin that these cops wouldn't stop hitting them once they were didn't protect the kids in Tides. They preyed on them.

"Sithspit!" Shouted the big cop as Juri dashed off. Korwin was a split second too slow, and got clipped on the shoulder by the stun baton as the officer made a desperate lunge to strike his fleeing quarry.

Korwin gasped, as a shooting pain went down his arm, and it suddenly went numb. He dropped the shoe box, and stumbled as his vision began to swim. He tried to fight it off, but tripped over a crack in the old durasteel platform that Tides stood on. He crashed to the ground, and felt his face smash into the cold metal surface. He rolled onto his back, and could feel a warm wetness seeping over his lips. His nose was bleeding, probably broken, and it throbbed painfully. He blinked tears from his eyes and saw that both cops now loomed over him.

The big one raised his stun baton and sneered, "Should've just taken the beating you worthless little urchin." Korwin closed his eyes, and braced for impact.

There was a sharp crack, followed by a strangled gasp and the sound of a heavy object hitting the ground. Korwin opened his eyes and saw the big cop lying still on the ground, a bloody gash on his already swelling temple. A sharp rock lay nearby. He heard a shout from the alleyway. "Hey you stupid piece of shit! You're next!"

Another rock whizzed by, but the second cop dodged it. Paying no attention to Korwin now, he rushed past. Korwin watched him go, and then his eyes widened as he saw the man draw his blaster. Juri seemed to notice as well, and he immediately sprinted back down the alley. Everything seemed to happen in slow motion. The officer raised his blaster, Korwin watching in horror. His eyes closed, and he heard the discharge of a blaster pistol. Korwin winced, instinctively knowing that another friend was dead. A sharp pain filled his chest, as yet another fell victim to the Tides. He slowly opened his eyes, and was shocked by what he beheld.

Sprawled face-down in the mouth of the alley, a smoking hole in the back of his head, was the security officer, his leg twitching violently. It was then that Korwin saw his own raised hand, his blaster pistol held in a firm grip, it's barrel smoking slightly. He staggered to his feet and made his way slowly over to the officer, his head swimming all the while. He stopped by the body, and saw that he had fired one perfect shot directly into the back of the cop's skull. He quickly holstered his blaster, and looked into the alley. "Juri? Juri, are you there?"

A moment later, Juri's blond head poked out from behind a corner. He noticed the corpse immediately. "Holy shit! Is he fucking dead?"

Korwin nodded anxiously. "Yeah, I shot him in the head." Realization dawned, and the implications of what he'd done hit him. "Holy shit. I just killed a security officer." He said in a faint voice.

"Hey! Hey, you little pieces of shit, what did you do!" Korwin whirled about, his blaster coming quickly into his hand again, aimed at the now conscious cop who was standing in the street with a look of horror creeping across his ashen, bloodied face. "You killed him!"

Korwin grit his teeth, and swallowed to keep the remains of his lunch from making an early appearance at the wrong exit. He felt his guts churning, andsensation was beginning to come back to his left arm, setting it ablaze with white-hot pins and needles. His heartbeat thudded hollowly in his ears, and he could feel sweat beading on his forehead and running into his eyes. He blinked it away, and in a guttural snarl, ground out, "And I'll kill you too if you don't take a fast fucking hike back up your mountain."

The cop stood still for a moment, a stunned expression on his face, as if he didn't quite believe what was happening. "You...you can't..."

"I did, and I'll do it again." Korwin was beginning to shake now, and he fired a warning shot near the man's head. "RUN, YOU STUPID SCHUTTA!" He screamed.

The officer needed no further prompting, and took off at a dead run, probably for his patrol speeder. Juri watched him go for a moment, and then said, "I'm outta here. You should get while the gettin's good." He patted his friend on the arm and then sprinted down the alley, turned the corner, and was gone. Korwin stared dumbly after him, but then shook his head violently. He'd just killed a man, a Celka Security Officer. He had to get home fast. He glanced around, and, seeing no witnesses in sight, started running for home. He stopped in his tracks and gave a glance behind him. He uttered a single four letter epithet, and turned back. Running as fast as he could, he stopped near the sight of the original confrontation, and picked up the white shoe box. He quickly peeked inside, and, seeing the contents unblemished, closed the box again, and ran as fast as he could away from the area.

* * *

Iyla Mae Nalan sat at the dinner table with her younger son, Kyren, and her daughter, Elleri. Kyren, fourteen years old, and Elleri, ten years old, were both having dinner with their mother in their small living room/dining room. It was also the room in which Korwin slept, on the small sofa that took up one wall. There were no windows, but the place was well ventilated, and dry on the inside.

"Mama, where's Korwin? Didn't he say he was coming home for dinner tonight?" Asked Elleri.

"I don't know sweety. And yes he did." Both of Korwin's younger siblings adored him, although Kyren was starting to emulate his older brother perhaps a bit too much. Although she was grateful for all the help Korwin offered, she disapproved vociferously of the way in which he contributed to the household. It was the way his father had done things. She had grown up in Tides, and had seen all too often the path that young men walked, and where it led. Death, or incarceration.

She was startled from her thoughts by the old magnetic door scraping slowly open. Her seventeen year old son walked unsteadily into the room, his face glistening with sweat despite having just come in from an autumn evening, and his chest rising and falling too rapidly to have been walking for long. "Kory, what's going on? Is everything okay?" Iyla had always been a very perceptive woman, and at the still youthful age of thirty-two, her senses had only sharpened.

"Yes mama, everything's fine. I was just hurrying home before it started raining. That's all." He smiled reassuringly, and then looked at his sister. "Hey little girl, I have something for you."

Elleri, who usually detested being called little girl, forgave the social blunder at the mention of a gift. Her eyes fell on the box and she knew instantly what he'd gotten her. "New shoes! Thank you so much Kory!" She stood from the table and took the proffered box. She opened it hurriedly, and squealed with delight when she saw her new shoes. She took them out of the box and put them on. "They're perfect! Thank you, Kory! I love you!" She gave Korwin a hug and then sat back down to continue eating, beaming all the while.

Korwin sat down at the table by Kyren. "Got something for you too big man. But it has to wait till after dinner." Korwin stood from the table and started heading for the small 'fresher unit by his brother and sister's room.

"Kory, honey, aren't you gonna eat?" Iyla's pretty, brown-skinned face became creased with worry as her eldest child stopped and turned a sad-eyed smile on her.

"No mama, I just ate before I came home. Save me a plate though. I'll have some later." Without waiting for a response, Korwin walked into the 'fresher and locked the door behind him. He didn't want to tell Kyren what he was giving him. The burden of responsibility. He knew that he couldn't stay at the house for long.

He drew his blaster and stared at it. He considered leaving immediately, and hiding the weapon somewhere, perhaps throwing it in the water at high tide. Of course, they'd just find him anyway, so he thought better of it. He'd be damned if he was going to rot in a Celka City prison for the rest of his life. Which was certainly what would happen. That, or they'd execute him; which, considering his social standing, was far more likely.

"Shit, how the hell did I get myself into this mess?" He asked himself aloud.

"What was that sweety?" His mother called.

"I didn't say nothing mama!" He called back. He holstered his blaster and took a deep breath. He just had to act normal for now, go out and eat, and then think of a plan. He opened the 'fresher door, and stepped into the main room. Taking a plate, he stepped to the small stove, and took a filet of Ch'ala, a small, red-meat shark that was common in the waters off of tides, and a serving of roasted itshun roots with butter. He poured himself a small glass of blue milk and sat down at the small foldout table. He cut a piece of fish off the filet and put itin his mouth. He chewed mechanically, not really tasting it.

"Korwin, how was your day?" His mother asked diplomatically.

"Same as always." He answered in kind. He took a bite of itshun, and washed it down with a swallow of blue milk.

"How'd you get the shoes?" Asked Iyla, most undiplomatically.

"How do you think?"

"Dammit Kory! You can't keep doing this! Your father..." Iyla trailed off at a sudden loud banging on the door.

Korwin tensed. He sat, frozen in place, his eyes wide with sudden fright. His eyes met his mothers, and he saw nothing but confusion. That hurt him, for some reason. "Open up you stupid poor human! It is Faroul!" Korwin nearly flew across the room, and opened the door. The fat orange Twilek waddled inside and glanced about himself disdainfully as the door slid shut behind him. "Well, this is a most...humble abode. Isn't it then. Quaint, yes. No offense of course." He offered his serrated grin to Iyla, and then turned to Korwin, the smile melting away. "You did a bad thing Korwin."

Iyla stood up, her confusion mounting even further. "What do you mean, he did a bad thing? And who are you?"

Faroul said, "Ah, of course, you do not know me." He glared at Korwin, and then said, "I am Faroul, a merchant who occasionally does business in the Tides Marketplace. I sometimes sell little girl's shoes to your son." He then turned back to Korwin and said, "You killed a man Korwin, and the cops are looking for you and your friend. They caught it on a security camera hanging in the awning of a building across the street."

Iyla turned wide eyes upon her son, her normally rich coffee complexion now almost gray. "Is this true Kory? Did you kill a man?" Her voice had a tremulous quality to it that broke Korwin's heart.

"Yeah mama, I did. An officer." He looked to the ground, and tears of shame began to course down his face. Only then, in the dim light of their apartment, did she see the bruised and slightly swollen nose.

"Why? What happened? Why would you do that?" She asked, her voice a small, quiet thing.

"Me and Juri...They were gonna beat us with their stun sticks. We tried to run, but one of em' hit me, and I fell down. Juri hit him with a rock, and knocked him cold, but the other one chased him. The cop pulled out his blaster, and I just...I just...shot him. I shot him in the head. He was gonna kill Juri mama, I couldn't let him do that."

Iyla's face went expressionless and she slumped down into her chair. "Your father did this." She said. When Korwin opened his mouthto defend hisabsent father, his mother pointed in the direction of themountain, inside of which toiled the many dangerous criminal's from Celka City's dark underbelly, and said,"That's where he went." Her eyes met his, and she stared at him unblinkingly. He couldn't do the same. Her voice started to shake, and tears began to stream down her pretty face. "He shot two boys from another gang, and they put him inside the mountain for the rest of his life. But they'll kill you. He just shot a couple of no good urchin punks, but you... you killed one of their own." She heaved a heavy sob, and in a voice thick with tears, said, "I'm gonna lose you like I lost your daddy, damn you! Damn you!"

She stood and advanced across the room at him. Drawing her hand back, she slapped him hard across the face, then again, and again. Another hard, wracking sob escaped, and she slumped into Korwin, her head on his chest, her knees failing her. Korwin wrapped his arms around her, and they sank to their knees, his mother incoherent as she wailed piteously into his shirt. He felt hot tears now pouring from his own eyes, and through blurry vision, he could see Kyren and Elleri sitting at the table. Elleri was sobbing unashamedly, and Kyren was making a heroic, if futile, effort to hold in his own tears.

Korwin began rocking his mother gently back and forth, trying to sooth her. "I'm so sorry mama, I 'm so sorry. I didn't know...I didn't mean for this to happen. It was an accident."

Faroul placed his hand on the young man's shoulder. "No, it was not. It was not a conscious thing, but it was not an accident." Korwin looked up at him, his eyes suddenly going dry.

"What do you mean?" He asked, suspicion creeping into his voice. "What are you saying."

"I am saying that you have good instincts. That officer would have killed your friend, and you reacted instantly, without thought. That saved your friends life, and probably your own."

"What do you mean, saved us? They'll execute us, you fat orange turd!" Korwin was standing now, nearly in Faroul's face.

Faroul grimaced slightly, as if suffering from an unpleasant odor, and then sighed. "Because you are bereaved, I will forgive that outburst. I am offering you a chance at life."

Iyla looked up at him, hope suddenly shining in her dark eyes. "How can you do that?"

Faroul grinned then, and said, "I was a soldier in the clone wars. I made many friends in high places during my time in the Republic Army. Certain of them joined the emperor, certain of them did not." He paused to allow the significance of his statement to sink in. Even Kyren and Elleri had ceased their crying, and were staring at Faroul. "I represent those who did not." He again paused meaningfully. "I have seen much combat, although you would not know it from this soft visage, and I know what makes a good soldier. I saw what happened. You have it."

Iyla sat herself down on the couch and laced her fingers together tightly. "And what exactly are you offering?"

"I am offering your son a position in the rebel alliance as an infantryman in the ground forces. I am a...recruiter, I suppose you could say."

"You want to save his life by sending him to war? Absolutely not." Said Iyla, her voice firmer now.

Korwin softly said, "I'll do it."

Iyla looked at her son, astonished. "Korwin, do you know what you're saying? I can't allow this! No."

He knelt down in front of her, and took her hands in his. "Mama, if I don't go, they're gonna find me, arrest me, and kill me. You know that. I can't let that happen." Iyla said nothing for a moment, but finally gave a nod, her face clouded with anguish once again.

Korwin turned to his brother and sister and said, "You two have to help mama out now. Elleri, help with the chores more, learn to cook. Kyren, you need to help make money. You're old enough to get a real job, so you should find one.

Faroul cut in, "I will employ him."

Korwin looked at the Twilek, surprise writ across his face. "Why would you do that?"

"This is worth far more than a pair of discounted shoes. It is the least I can do. The Alliance desperately needs every recruit it can get, man, woman, and alien." He stroked his double chin thoughtfully for a moment before a corner of his lip twitched in a sardonic smile. "Besides, I imagine the goodwill gesture will help the recruiting drive."

Korwin turned to his mother again, feeling a sudden sense of calm, and gave her a long hug. "I love you mama. I'll be back soon, okay?"

She nodded her head and faked a smile, and said, "Okay baby, see you soon. I love you."

Korwin gave his sister a hug and said, "Take care of those shoes little girl, I don't know when I'm gonna be able to get you another pair. I love you."

"I love you too Kory." She said through a fresh set of tears.

He stepped over to Kyren, who stood up, and threw his arms around his older brother. Korwin hugged him tight, and said, "Man of the house. Kyren Nalan, wearing the big shoes now." He grinned, and ran his hand over his brothers close-cropped, tight curls. "I love you little brother. You be good, you hear?"

Kyren grinned back, with no tears now, and said, "I hear big brother. I love you too. Hey Kory, when you get back, you gonna get right?"

Korwin stepped back and said, "Yeah Ky, everything'll be good, and I'll get right. No more shit." He looked to Faroul and said, "Just let me get my stuff."

Faroul held up a hand to forestall him. "That will not be necessary. The Alliance will provide you with everything you need. We should leave at once." Turning to Iyla, he said, "Tell them that he hasn't come here. And get rid of his plate, or they'll see through it." With that, Faroul opened the door, and led Korwin through it, and into a different life.

* * *

"So where did you go then?" Asked the beautiful young Twilek, her eyes focused intently on Korwin.

"He took me to a private hangar a few miles up the shoreline from the northernmost end of Tides. There was a ship inside, a little Korivian L-23 transport, an old cylinder shaped thing about seventy feet long, and twenty feet in diameter with repulsors, two side-mounted external sublight engines, and a hyperdrive. Of course, at the time, I had no idea what the thing was called. Hell, I'd never seen a starship that wasn't at least a mile overhead. Anyway, he led me around to the aft end, where the gangway was. I entered the vessel, and saw twelve other people, none of whom I knew. There were three women, nine men, all human. Celka City is mostly human. Juno IV is mostly human."

The interviewer smiled gently and asked, "What was it like, leaving your home for the first time?"

Korwin cocked his head to the side thoughtfully, and said, "It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, you know? I suppose that somewhere, deep down, I'd always wanted to get away, to see the galaxy."

"Was it frightening?"

Korwin grinned at the question. "Not at all. It was actually very exciting. I couldn't believe I was actually in space. It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. I still love space. There's something incredibly life-affirming about being in the void, seeing that type of stark beauty. Hyperspace was something else too." He chuckled softly at that.

"Where did the ship go? Basic training?"

"Well, we didn't exactly get basic training. We were taken to Yavin IV, and given a four day course on guerilla warfare, operating as a combat unit, and operating our weapons and equipment." Korwin stopped and sipped his water again, but did not continue.

"Did you ever find what became of your friend Juri?"

Korwin nodded. "I told Faroul where he would probably find him. He did, and the next time I saw him was at the victory party on Endor, after the destruction of the death star. He'd joined up in the infantry like I had, but had taken a test to become a pilot. He ended up in the 3rd Navy Fighter Wing, aboard the Calamari Cruiser _Trident_."

"So he made it home as well?"

Korwin shook his head, his eyes sad, and said, "Juri stayed on for another tour of duty, like I did, and eventually ended up flying in atmosphere in the Battle of Coruscant. He was shot down near the old Senate Building, from what I heard. He'd managed to eject, but his X-wing exploded just after, and the blast killed him. They found what was left of his body on top of the senate dome."

The interviewer looked down at the floor for a moment, and then back up at Korwin. "I'm sorry to hear that." She adjusted her datapad, and marked a few notes down and then leaned forward again. "Going back to your story, what did you do after Yavin IV?"

Korwin slowly wetted his lips with his tongue and folded his hands in his lap. After a moment of apparently deep thought, he answered simply, "We went to war."


	3. Soldier 02

The transport ship held nearly two hundred other fresh recruits from the Yavin IV base, and yet Korwin still felt more alone than he ever had. He had seen aliens he'd never heard of before, and had met and trained with eleven other recruits who would comprise his small squad. He knew that they were to be trained more extensively in small-unit warfare once they reached their destination, but he had no idea where that was. None of them did. They'd been in hyperspace for nineteen hours now, and the troop's boredom was almost tangible. One could only play so many games of saabac before it's entertainment value was lost completely. That had happened around six hours ago.

Korwin sighed, and attempted to get comfortable on the hard durasteel floor of the transport ships hold. There were no seats in the hold, and minimal energy was devoted to heat. Most of it went to the shields and engines. Korwin checked his blaster rifle over for the hundredth time, and once again concluded that all it's mechanisms were where they should be, and everything was clean and functional. It was the same with his blaster pistol, which he'd kept from home.

"So, Korwin, any word on where we're going?" It was Private Eulen Jenrol, a human recruit from his squad who, at twenty-one, was four years Korwin's senior. His hair was a thick golden blond, shorn short by the Army. He was a bit of goof, but seemed okay. His name was a great source of amusement to the other troops, as when superior officers addressed him, it sounded like they were saying, "Private General".

"How the fuck would I know? I don't even know who our commanding officer is." Korwin set his rifle down, and laid down on the floor, using his infantryman's half-helmet as a pillow. He closed his eyes and said, "All I know is that it's gonna be bad."

Eulen raised an eyebrow, and said, "That's pretty pessimistic of you. Why would you say that?"

Without looking up from his reclined position, Korwin replied, "Why would they give us just one week of training before sending us to our combat unit?"

"Good point...good point." Eulen stood up and walked away, muttering under his breath. Korwin took a long slow breath and closed his eyes. He supposed he should be scared, but he wasn't. Maybe the shooting back in Tides had already erased his fear of death. He smirked. He knew that wasn't it. He'd be scared when he got off the transport. He eventually drifted off into a fitful sleep.

* * *

"Privates Nalan, Vashta, Jenrol, Kozan, Cluthlth'lu, Jezrak, Ebelweev, Hurstran, Zgondli, Turneen, Kreth, and Hoozt, on your feet! This is your stop!" Korwin's eyes opened slowly, and he looked around. He was a bit disoriented for a moment before he remembered where he was. He heard the previous order repeated over the shipwide comm, and quickly got to his feet, picking up his blaster rifle, and slinging it over his shoulder. He made his way to the exit ramp at the back of the cargo bay, and stood in line with the other recruits. Iolan Vashta, Eulen Jenrol, Tharza Kozan, Peshten Hoozt, Ekba Ebelweev and Valis Turneen were all human males. Danna Kreth was a human female, and a lovely one at that, with long black hair, a deeply tanned complexion, and twinkling turquoise eyes. She'd said she preferred the company of other women, but Korwin had caught her surreptitiously stealing kisses with one of the male pilots at the temple. He guessed she'd said it to get the men at the base to stop hitting on her. It had actually worked pretty well, and Korwin thought her fairly clever for having thought of it.

Odon Cluthlth'lu and Uril Zgondli were Althlat, an amphibious race of humanoids from Darazia's southern oceans. They were descended from sharks, and still had the black, terrifying eyes, and razor sharp teeth of their progenitor race. They also had webbed hands, for easier swimming. The two of them were cousins.

Pazt Jezrak was a Kel Dor, orange-skinned, and young for his race. He'd volunteered after the Empire had attacked a ship carrying force-sensitive Kel Dor scholars. Korwin didn't know what to make of all the force mumbo-jumbo that Jezrak talked about, but he liked him well enough.

Aryln Hurstran was a member of a near-human race known as the Zymbili. According to Hurstran, the Zymbili had started out human some ten thousand years ago, but had developed the deep red stripes on their grayish skin and hair to help camouflage them in the two-hued grasses of their world.

The squad of twelve stood at the exit as the ramp lowered, revealing a cracked duracrete landing pad. "Move out!" came the disembodied voice of the pilot. The twelve of them started moving, with Jezrak first in line. When they'd all made it off the ship, the ramp closed and the thing immediately lifted off for parts unknown. But even as the noise of the ships engines faded, it was replaced by the noise of turbolasers and small arms fire off in the distance. Off the edge of the landing pad, some fifty feet away, was an endless sea of waist-high light green grass, broken here and there by small copses of tall, leafy trees. If not for the sounds of combat in the distance, it would have been peaceful.

Approaching them, from what appeared to be a clone wars era on-planet personnel carrier, was a tall human man with greying blond hair and chiseled features. He was dressed in a grey green jumpsuit that had light green stripes on it, the color of the grass. He was wearing a harness that held four grenades of some kind, a few extra blaster paks, and a vibrodagger. He strode up to them and said, "Welcome to Gnazt, privates. My name is Captain Daytel Borlin, and I'm the CO of Krayt Company, which you are now a part of. Now, if you'll get to the box, we'll get to the base." He gestured at the troop carrier.

When they were all settled on board, the thing lurched into the air, gaining altitude quickly. They flew towards the bright flashes of light in the distance, nearly a hundred feet off the ground. Korwin had been one of the last to board, and his legs dangled over the side. He'd never been afraid of heights, and he supposed that was a good thing. "Sir," said Korwin, turning to the Captain, "are we going to be riding in these things a lot?"

Captain Borlin grinned. "We'll see, son, we'll see."

Korwin looked back down at the grassy plains rushing past below, only to find that it was beginning to get closer. They were descending. He looked forward, and saw a group of large tents, perhaps fifty of them, sitting in an area cleared of grass. The transport set down in the center, and everyone hopped off. The transport lifted off again and headed off in the direction of the combat, several miles away.

Captain Borlin surveyed the group in front of him, and said, "Well, it's good to get some fresh blood in the unit. We've only got four hundred fighting soldiers at this base, the other two hundred some-odd are medical, cooks, intelligence, shit like that." Nobody responded, and that seemed to please the captain. "Good, not a bunch of loudmouths. I like that. Do you know why we only have four hundred fighting soldiers at this base?" Everyone shook their heads. "Because it's impossible to get more with the low recruitment rates and contrastingly high casualty rates. The death rate here is high. I won't lie to you. Anyone can be killed in an instant on the plains."

Korwin glanced around at his squadmates and suddenly felt very sorry for them. It was too bad, they were being risked like that. Korwin himself felt fine; knew that it wouldn't be him who died.

The captain continued on. "The Imperials are constantly trying to get close to this outpost, to take it. They want the location we have. They want what we're protecting." Again, no response. "Does anyone want to know what we're protecting?" Everyone nodded their heads.

"Yavin IV. This planet is key to them taking Yavin IV. After the destruction of the death star, and the loss of a considerable amount of their immediately available naval resources, the Imps were forced to take a more traditional approach to galactic warfare. A naval battle to gain air superiority over a couple planets in a system. A ground campaign to gain strategic locations on-planet such as temporary ship-yards for smaller repairs, future rear-line hospitals, supply staging points, and air bases. And then repeat, until you've slowly hopped your way from system to system through enemy territory, and ripped out their heart.

"This planet is the first in this system to be attacked, and is to be used by the Imperials as a staging point to disrupt the shipping lanes we've been using to move supplies around to various units on various planets. If they can do that, and find a way to cut off the supplies being sent to Yavin IV, they can force the Alliance High Command into making a costly and labor-intensive move to new location. That would leave them vulnerable for a while. We can't let that happen." The captain made eye contact with each of them, and then said, "Follow me, we'll get you to your tent. You can get some shut-eye, but make it count. You're in the field tomorrow."

* * *

"What was it like for you, how did it feel, being on this strange planet, with these strange people, suddenly in the middle of a war with galactic consequences?" The interviewer asked.

"It was a bit humbling actually. That first day, as we were going to our tent to bunk down, we passed the field hospital. You couldn't see in but...the sounds...they were just horrible. Screams, so many screams, people crying, gasping, the sound of saws cutting through bone, the moans of the dying. It was terrible. You realize that even though you think you've suffered...even though you might feel like you've had it rough; these people had it rough, you know? I mean really rough." Korwin shifted in his seat. "Some of them aren't going to live, some of them will be damaged physically for the rest of their lives. Everyone was damaged mentally, emotionally. Spiritually too I suppose, those of us that were spiritual."

"Did you sleep at all that first night?"

Korwin shook his head. "Not at all. I just lay awake and listened to the fighting going on in the distance. It sounded bad. It was just this constant series of explosions, and blasters firing, and turbolasers. I was very anxious about going into combat for the first time. The knowledge that tomorrow, I'd be out in those tall grasses away from this base, getting shot at, was not a pleasant thing."

"It must have seemed like an eternity before that first patrol came." She said.

"You know, I had so much on my mind that night, that first wait...just that first one, mind you...it wasn't so long. It passed pretty quick."

* * *

"Rise and shine, it's huntin' time!" Boomed Captain Borlin's voice, as the small floodlights attatched to each of the tents support poles flooded the inside of the green tent with blinding UV light. Korwin noted, as he stood from his cot, that the sounds of combat in the distance had ceased. "From now on, you are known as Burgundy Squad..."

Korwin cut the Captain off. "Burgundy Squad. Why can't we be Red, or, or Blue, or something like that. Burgundy."

The Captain's face appeared as though it might turn the color in question, but with great effort, he calmed himself. "Pick your own damn name then. Just make sure it isn't taken." He smoothed down the front of his jumpsuit, which now lacked it's combat harness, and said, "Now, you are to be taken on your first combat patrol today. As we have a lack of experienced leaders, you will all go together under one Sergeant." The Captain stepped aside to reveal a short human man who looked to be no older than twenty three. He had close-cropped brown hair, brown eyes, and a rather unremarkable face. He wore a combat jumpsuit identical to the Captains, and carried a stack of them in his arms. He smiled, and said, "My name is Sergeant Wels Tandro, and I'll be your guide on today's tour of Gnazt's scenic plains and lake lands. Each of you take a jumpsuit. I shouldn't have to tell you what they're for. Once you've dressed, step outside, and we will equip you with your field gear." Their two superior's stepped outside, and the members of Korwin's squad disrobed, and then quickly redressed in their new camouflage jumpsuit's.

No one spoke a word as they readied themselves, but remained in somber silence as they picked up their firearms and stepped outside the tent. They were all holding their helmets in their hands, but Tandro said, "Don't bother with those. They might stop a glancing shot from a slugthrower, but they won't stop a blaster bolt." Everyone tossed their helmets back into the tent. He then said, "Follow me, and we'll get you equipped."

He led them past four more troop tents, and into a much larger one. "This is part of our supply tent. You'll find quartermaster Meebeb here. He's the guy to talk to if you need anything." He introduced them to Sergeant Meebeb, a Sullustan, who signed each of them out with a combat harness, two concussion grenades each and four extra blaster paks for their rifles.

Korwin put his blaster paks in the bandoleer that ran across his chest, and clipped his grenades on the metal rings he saw on the front of the harness. The Sullustan then issued each of them a vibrodagger. The combat harness had a sheath at the lower back, and Korwin slipped his blade inside. They'd received a bit of hand to hand training on Yavin, but Korwin wasn't particularly anxious to test his skills in the field. He remembered the brief talk their instructor had given them.

"The last thing you want to do is end up in hand to hand combat with a stormtrooper. Their armor is difficult to pierce with a vibroblade, and often the only way to kill them before they kill you is to find one of the seams in the armor. Those areas are here," he gestured to his neck, "here," around his shoulder joint and just under his arm, "here," a thin line traced across his waist, "and here." He finished by pointing to his groin, where his legs met his torso.

"I promise you that it is a difficult task to strike such a precise blow when you've got one of these guys trying to smash your face with the butt of his rifle."

Korwin was brought out of his flashback by the sound of Sgt. Tandro's voice. "Take a pack. Inside, you will find essential first aid supplies, such as burn ointment, wound cleansers, bacta syringes, bandages, and whatnot. There's also food inside. Dried meat, nuts, fruit, that kind of thing. Not the best food, but it gets you by." After they'd each taken a pack and looked through them, they found there were also waterproof poncho's, and thin, insulating blankets.

"Each of you take a canteen as well. Keeping yourself hydrated is imperative if you're going to fight effectively and survive." When they'd each gotten a canteen and fastened them to the sides of their packs, Tandro told them they were ready.

"We'll be heading out of the camp from the southern end. We'll keep that heading for about a mile, and hang a sharp right due west. From there, we'll make a counterclockwise circle around the area." He pulled a small holoprojecter from a pocket on his jumpsuit. He activated it, and a map of the area sprung into existence. He pointed to the camp on the map, and said, "Here's us." He then traced their route into the grasslands, and around the shores of a large lake. "This is our route. We'll end back at camp tomorrow at 1130." He checked his wrist chrono. "It is currently 0617. It's time to go." Tandro turned to Sgt. Meebeb. "Take care, mouse. I'll see you tomorrow."

Meebeb chittered something in Sullustan that Korwin couldn't understand, and Tandro gave a loud guffaw, and then turned and walked out of the quartermaster's tent. Korwin and his squadmates followed him. He glanced around at them. Each of them looked as nervous as he felt, which he was silently grateful for.

As Tandro led them out of the camp, they passed another patrol just entering. There were ten soldiers trudging wearily out of the tall grass, dragging two makeshift stretchers, each bearing a soldier on it. Korwin looked down at them and nearly lost his lunch. One was a human, obviously dead, who had a gaping hole in the side of his neck. The edges of the wound were blackened and burnt, and he could see cooked flesh and blackened bone within. Congealed dark brown blood ran in tiny rivulets down his neck, and his uniform was stuck to the skin there. His eyes were open, glassy and lifeless, and Korwin had to tear his eyes away from them. That brought him to a moaning Bothan, her leg missing below the knee, the stump jagged and crusted with dried blood and dirt. Korwin recoiled from the sight, and most of the others in his squad did the same. Tandro nodded to the walking troops, but seemed unaffected by the sight of the two soldiers on stretchers.

They stepped into the grass, and Tandro stopped them there. "What I am going to say is very important. If you want to eat, do it now. Otherwise, save it for designated rest points. I'm going to set a fast pace on this little hike, so don't fall behind. Keep low, and try not to let your head be seen above the grass. Be as quiet as possible, and listen for the stormtroopers. You can't miss them if you're paying attention." He made eye contact with each of them to make sure they were listening. "When we run into them, and I promise we will, shoot center mass. Remember that. Pay attention to the status of your blaster pak, and make sure you don't run out of ammo in the middle of a lightfight." Nobody made a move to go for food, and if they were feeling anything like Korwin, their appetite's were probably severely diminished. "Alright, let's move out."

Tandro crouched low, and everyone else followed suit. They slipped out, stealthily enough for "fresh meat", as Korwin had heard a veteran on Yavin call them. He kept his eyes on Kreth, who was just in front of him, and focused on listening for the clacking sound that stormtrooper armor was supposed to make. His palms were sweating, and he clutched his blaster rifle a bit too tightly. This was it, he knew. This was the moment of truth.

* * *

"What were you thinking about as you walked into the grasslands for the first time?"

"My family, my home. It suddenly seemed as if years had gone by since I'd been there, and seen them. It had only been weeks, but that's how it felt." Korwin took a sip of his water and then leaned forward. "I suppose it was seeing those two troops, lying on stretchers, all torn up like that."

"After that, once you started the patrol, did you feel any better?" Asked the interviewer, one of her lekku shifting slightly in a sign that Korwin knew was like a physical question mark.

"Well, yeah, once I had something to really occupy my mind, you know? I mean, it was definitely a traumatic experience, seeing the soldiers, but I was worried enough about keeping my own skin intact that I stayed good and alert once we started."

The interviewer glanced down at her notes, and tapped her chin for a moment with her pen, before looking up and asking, "On that first patrol, did you run into any stormtroopers?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, we did. It wasn't until the second day, at about 0730, that we ran into them. We had come off the backside of the lake, and we were walking through a large copse of basa trees, probably six acres square, which stand roughly thirty feet, fully grown, and have these long spindly branches with fluted green leaves on them. Now, we didn't really have to worry about snipers in the basa trees, because even the lower branches were really much too thin to support a full grown man's weight, and of course, all stormtroopers were human men." He paused to think for a moment, and then said, "It was Kreth out on point, with Tandro a few feet behind her, then me, Vashta, Jenrol, and so on down the line, I can't remember exactly what order we were in after that." He took a sip of water, furrowed his brow, and then continued. "Kreth was just about to step between these two trees, when she stopped so fast, Tandro almost ran into her, which would have been a very bad thing. I stopped just behind Tandro, and heard him ask her what was wrong."

* * *

"Well sir," Kreth whispered, "I'm pretty sure there's a trip wire on my boot." She looked down, but couldn't see because of the grass that still grew, even under the canopy of the basa trees. Tandro sent the signal down the line to settle in for a few minutes and keep watch, before he bent down to check.

"Sithspit, you're right. It's a good thing you felt that, or at least you me and Nalan would be scattered all over this little wood." Korwin felt a short-lived wave of nausea as he heard those words, startled to think of how close he'd come to instant death and not known it. He took a few deep, calming breaths while Sgt. Tandro disabled the trap, and his stomach eventually began to settle. It was nearly ten minutes before Tandro stood up, and declared the trap safe. He then removed his pack, and put the trap inside, for later use against the Imperials. "Helpful of them to leave this lying around." He said with a chuckle, as he closed up his pack.

Korwin grinned at the remark, and opened his mouth to reply, when a sudden hail of blaster fire drowned out his voice. Everyone scattered away from each other, so as to avoid a single volley killing them all, and found cover. Korwin froze for a moment, but was shocked into motion when he felt a white-hot burning sensation in his left arm. He gasped, and his eyes began watering, but he dropped into a crouch and ducked behind a tree. Peeking out, he could see at least five stormtroopers, some forty feet away, peeking out from behind tree trunks, blasting away at anything that moved. He knew from the intensity of the fire that there had to be more. He was forced to pull his head back when one of them spotted him and sent a flurry of blaster bolts past his tree, a few of them sizzling and screaming into the thick heartwood.. His arm burned fiercely, but he dared not look at it now. He could barely hear Tandro yelling at everyone to stay down, and he grimaced as he took another peek, and was nearly given a third eye for it.

He looked to Tandro, who was standing behind a tree, occasionally leaning out as far as he dared and firing back. Korwin followed suit, but failed to hit anything, as his shot was sent wild when another bolt lanced past his head. He pressed the back of his head against the tree, and closed his eyes tightly. He pulled a concussion grenade off of his combat harness and primed it. He counted slowly to three, and then leaned around the tree and hurled it towards the group of five that was still firing. He heard one of them shout "Grenade!" a split second before a deafening explosion rang out through the trees. The ground trembled slightly, and Korwin could feel the force of the concussion even through the tree. There was a slight ringing in his ears, but he paid it no mind.

The fire from the stormtroopers had been reduced significantly by the blast, and Korwin peeked out from behind his cover again, and saw a white armored torso, some thirty feet to the right of where his grenade had landed. The trooper, and another one who was apparently on the other side of a tree, hidden from him, had Vashta and Cluthlth'lu pinned down. Korwin took aim and squeezed the trigger hard, holding it long enough to send five bolts of deadly energy slamming into the stormtrooper's chest. The man fell to the ground, unmoving, his rifle falling from his hands.

Korwin felt a hollow ache in his stomach, and again felt the urge to retch. He had killed once before, true, but that had been in defense of himself and a friend. Of course, he thought to himself, this was really no different. He looked about himself and saw the other members of his unit. All were alive, but Jenrol had taken a shot to the leg, and it looked as though Hurstran had been hit several times. Hurstran sat with his back against a tree, breathing heavily, his eyes squinted shut, and his hands gripping the stock of his blaster rifle so tightly that his knuckles had gone a pale grey.

Korwin pushed the sight from his mind, found another target, raised his rifle, and fired several more shots. The first couple bolts missed, but two of them hit him in the arm. The stormtrooper attempted to duck behind a tree, but a bolt from someone else's rifle lanced through his helmet, the black eye lenses flaring brightly for a moment as the blazing-hot energy flash-fried his grey matter. The corpse dropped to the ground in a twitching heap, it's white plasteel armor clattering audibly over the lightfight, the corpse thrashing about as the brain went haywire in it's final death throes.

Korwin ignored the sick feeling once again creeping up his throat, and choked the rising bile down. He remembered the cop in Celka City twitching when he'd shot him in the head. He fired at another Imp as the trooper ducked behind a tree, but was forced to take cover again, as another stormtrooper sent a few bolts his way. He heard a tinny voice shouting, "Retreat, retreat, get the hell out of here!" Korwin peered from behind cover, and saw the last of the stormtroopers, eight of them, beginning to back up in an organized retreat. Four would provide covering fire, while the other four backed up to the next retreat point and set up their own wave of cover fire. They were using this to leapfrog their way out of the trees. Korwin looked over at Hurstran and caught his breath. The striped near-human was slumped over on his side, his eyes open, unblinking. Tears came unbidden to Korwin's eyes, and he moaned softly, "Oh shit, man." He hadn't known Aryln Hurstran for more than a week and a half, but he didn't deserve to die like this. And he could have helped him. Should have helped him.

Korwin pulled the remaining grenade from his harness, and primed it. He glanced around the tree, and saw that the Imps were nearly out of the trees. The two groups were in the middle of a leapfrog, and were all grouped together, a perfect target. With a blood-curdling scream, he stepped out from behind the tree and held down the trigger of his rifle, cradling it against his hip with his left arm, sweeping it back and forth twice. The Imps all ducked their heads, and three of them dropped to the ground, writhing in pain from the wounds they'd just received. Korwin used the moment of respite from their wall of fire to throw his grenade with his right hand.

He threw it side-arm, as hard as he could, knowing that at that distance it might explode before it got there. He watched in slow motion as the Imps recovered from the shock of the sudden hail of fire, and raised their own rifles to fire. He watched as they gave a collective start at seeing a grenade rocketing toward them. He watched as the grenade traveled on a straight line, like a well thrown ball, right into the group of stormtroopers and exploded in mid-air.

White-armored bodies went flying every which way, as if they were action figures being tossed about by some great, invisible toddler. The three that had fallen before, wounded by his wild spray of bolts, now lay still. Several trees were splintered and gouged from the grenades, and their were stormtroopers lying here and there, dead. Tandro called out, "Everybody okay?"

Everyone called in, Korwin and Jenrol with voices strained by the pain of first battle wounds. Everyone but Hurstran. Korwin called, "Hurstran's hit bad. I think he's dead."

Tandro stood up and took a good look in the direction the dead stormtroopers were. Seeing nothing, he walked slowly over to Hurstran. Everyone else came near, but Tandro reminded them not to stand too close together.

Tandro gave him a quick check, to see if there was pulse, but everybody knew. Hurstran was dead. He had been shot in both legs, and had been hit in the chest and abdomen several times. His eyes, still open, were glazed and lifeless, the color drained out of them. The grey skin was now almost white, and his deep crimson stripes had turned a pale, milky pink.

Tandro turned to Korwin and said, "You get Hurstran, Vashta," he turned to Vashta, "You get his gear. Move out."

Korwin picked up Hurstran's body, and slung him over both his shoulders, not thinking to complain anymore about the wound in his arm. Vashta looked at Korwin, and the two made eye contact. "Damn Imps." Muttered Vashta, as he turned and picked up Hurstran's rifle and pack.

"Damn Imps." Korwin repeated in a whisper.

When they'd shouldered their respective loads, Korwin and Vashta fell in line in the middle of the squad. When they passed the three dead Imps on the path, Korwin saw that their armor was cracked in various places, and they were lying close together in a large pool of blood. He swallowed a lump in his throat and forced himself to look forward and continue walking..

The sun was beginning to warm the air as they stepped from the cover of the trees. Korwin felt the first sweat break out a few minutes later, as he trudged through the tall grass with Hurstran's deadweight on his shoulders. It was going to be a long morning for the unnamed squad.

They walked for what seemed like an entire day, but was actually only about five hours. They made camp nearly an hour late, on account of them having to shuffle Hurstran and the extra pack around so no one person had to carry them the whole way, but they made it. Korwin had Hurstran again by the time they entered the camp, and Tandro had radioed ahead to let them know that they two wounded, one dead. A team of six nurses was waiting for them, and four of them took Hurstran's body away to the morgue tent. One of them, a pretty human woman with greying brown hair who looked around forty, took Korwin to the infirmary. They passed five soldiers who were sick, and a couple being treated for minor wounds.

She sat him down on a cot and said, "Okay, let's take a look at that arm. I'm going to need you to remove the top of your jumpsuit. Can you do that, or does it hurt too much?"

Korwin began removing his combat harness, and said, "I think I'm okay."

She nodded and waited until his upper body was bare. She took his arm gently in her hand and lifted it slightly. She put on a pair of glasses, and looked closely at the wound. She gently turned his arm, and he winced as it sent a new wave of fire shooting down his arm. "Sorry." She said, as she looked at the exit wound. "Hold on just a moment." She turned to a large table with various pieces of medical equipment, and picked up something that looked like a datapad with a snub-nosed blaster pistol attatched to it. She pointed the "barrel" at his wound and pulled the trigger. The machine began to emit a low-pitched, soft hum, and then she released the trigger and set it back down.

"Well, you're lucky." She said. "It's a through and through, and it didn't hit the bone." She picked up a bottle of disinfectant, and some gauze. "I'm going to clean your arm and bandage it, then give you an injection of bacta to speed the healing. It should be back up to snuff within a week."

"Thanks." Said Korwin.

She smiled, "Anytime, soldier." She smiled again as he winced when she began cleaning the wound. "So, is this your first wound?" She asked.

"Yeah...first patrol too." He replied.

"I see. Well, hopefully, I won't see you in here too much. Although, here is better than the field hospital." She finished wrapping the bandage around his arm, and picked up an injection gun. Attatching a vial of bacta fluid, she pressed it against his arm, a couple inches above the wound, and pressed the trigger. There was _pop-hiss_, as the the vial released it's contents into his arm. Korwin suppressed another wince at the stinging sensation moving through his veins. "Okay, that's it. You're done. I want you to head back to your bed, and get some rest. I'm taking you off patrol duty until your arm is healed."

Korwin opened his mouth to protest, but she silenced him before he could speak. "That's an order. I hold rank over you private," she said, pointing to the corporal's stripes on the arm of her white nurses uniform, "so hop to."

Korwin sighed, and stood up, slipping his arm painfully back into his sleeve, and zipping up his jumpsuit. He picked up his equipment, slinging his pack and harness over one shoulder, and his rifle over the other. "Thanks Nurse..."

"Kestus. Nurse Kestus."

Thanks, Nurse Kestus." He said with a grin, as he left the infirmary. Korwin walked to his tent, almost in a daze. He was brought back to reality as he nearly ran someone over. "Hey, watch where the fuck you're going!"

Korwin saw a human male in front of him, maybe a couple years older, with red hair, pale skin, and piercing blue eyes. His face was lightly freckled, and he had somewhat of a hawkish nose. Korwin shook his head and said, "Shit, I'm real sorry about that. I'm just a little...tired."

The other guy nodded and his glare softened a bit. "Say, you just came in with Tandro, didn't you?" He raised an eyebrow. "One of the new guys right? From, what was it, Burgundy squad?"

"We're changing the name...but yeah, that's us." Korwin said.

"Well, sorry about your buddy and all. It's shit when that happens, but it happens a lot. You learn to live with it." The red-head stuck out his hand. "Name's Dilan Kierse. I'm from Corellia."

"Korwin Nalan, Juno IV." Korwin replied.

Dilan frowned, his brow furrowed in thought. Then he shook his head slowly, "Nope, never heard of it."

Korwin nodded. "I ain't surprised. Not many people probably have. There's only one real city there, Celka City, where I'm from."

"Huh...interesting. So uh, you came out of the infirmary. You get hurt?" He asked with a speculative grin.

Korwin looked at his hurt arm, and then back at Dilan. "Yeah. I got shot in the arm. It's not that bad though. I'm supposed to stay in camp for a week." His brow furrowed now. "After what happened to Hurstran though, I can't let them go without me. I killed over half of those fuckers!"

Dilan shrugged, spread his hands wide, and said, "Well, what are they gonna do? Court martial ya?" He dropped his hands back to his side, and walked away, leaving Korwin with something to think about. He mulled over Dilan's last words to him as he walked into the tent, and laid down. No one said a word as he entered, and it didn't appear as though anyone had any interest in talking with each other. Korwin closed his eyes, and breathed deeply. Sleep came to him almost instantly.

* * *

"It wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. I guess, honestly, I had a bit of the shakes there, afterward, while I was lugging Hurstran around. But after an hour or so, my body calmed down, and I settled into what I've come to know as survival mode."

"Survival mode?" The interviewer asked with an arch of her brow.

"You know that you're carrying a dead comrade on your back...but you push away the hurt, you force yourself to focus. After a little while, you find this groove. Fucked up things...can I say that? Fuck? Can I say that on this show?" Korwin asked, a hand on his corn-rowed hand.

"It's uncut sir, anything goes." Said the interviewer.

"Fucked up things happen every day in a war, and you see death all around you. There comes a time, when you learn to bury the feelings that it causes for long enough to do your job. You think about it, don't get me wrong. You always think about it. But you learn to live with it. Like Dilan said."

"Well, on that note, we'll wrap up our first day of interviewing." The interviewer smiled. "See you tomorrow then?"

"Right..." Korwin fumbled for a name, and came up empty.

"Laina."

"Laina. Tomorrow then." He stood up and shook her hand, before taking his exit of the sitting room.

"Okay people, shut it all down. Be here tomorrow at seven to set up. Mr. Nalan will be arriving at nine. And as you saw today, he is punctual, so be ready to go." Laina put her datapad in a carrying case, and closed it. The crew was in the process of shutting down and packing up the holocameras for the night, and the lighting and sound crews were packing up also. Laina sighed and stood up. Deciding she needed some fresh air, she stepped out onto the balcony to gaze at the magnificent Coruscant skyline at sunset. Feeling refreshed, she decided to catch a light dinner and head to her room to get to sleep early. Tomorrow would bring another long day of interviews. Mr. Nalan had quite the history with the Alliance Army, and they'd barely scratched the surface.


	4. Soldier 03

"Good morning Mr. Nalan, I hope your dinner went well." Said Laina.

Korwin smiled back as he settled into the armchair from the previous day and replied, "It was lovely."

"Good. Now, getting right down to business, let's pick up where we left off yesterday."

Korwin nodded his head in agreement and then his eyebrows furrowed together and he began rubbing his chin with his right hand. After a moment, his expression cleared and he gave a short chuckle. "Right, right...okay, the first three days after my first patrol were pretty easy. Light duty around camp, you know? Things like doing laundry, or helping out on mess detail. By the time three days had passed, I was itching to go back out on patrol, because it was so boring in the camp. I also didn't like the idea of the rest of my squad going without me. That first lightfight, with Hurstran dying right off, really brought us all closer together. I couldn't stand the thought that one of them might die while I was in camp cooking dinner or something like that, you know? Knowing that maybe, if I was out there, I could save somebody. Luckily, nobody died, and they patrolled straight through that whole time.

"When they came back, I still had four days left on my orders for light duty. But the next morning, when they got up early to go out on a two day patrol west of the big lake, I got up with them. I half-expected Sgt. Tandro to say something, but he never did. I just got up, got ready, and walked into the grass, or "Yard" as I'd heard the vets referring to it."

Laina smiled, and said, "The Yard, that's appropriate."

"Well, that second patrol was a breeze. Nobody got hit, and we successfully ambushed and destroyed two much larger units of Imps. From then on, not a moment in camp went by that I couldn't wait to get out into the Yard. For the first time in my life, I had found something, other than drugs and hustling, that I was really good at. Even if at the time, I didn't understand the war philosophically speaking, not having been affected by the Empire, I knew that I was doing something special. That meant a lot to a kid like me. And when I got selected for the first behind the lines patrol, man, that was something else."

* * *

Korwin sat on an empty medical supply crate, eating a ration bar. It didn't taste great, but it had the nutrition he needed, and kept the gnawing hunger at bay. Besides, after two months of eating them every day, he'd gotten used to them. Half the time, he preferred them over the food they served in the mess tent.

It was a hot day, and he had unzipped the top half of his jumpsuit and pushed it down to his waist, revealing a chiseled bare chest dripping with sweat, in the hopes that he would cool off. No such luck. The sun was at it's highest point in the sky at the moment, and there hadn't been the slightest hint of a breeze for nearly three days. The thermostat had read a blistering 108 degrees about fifteen minutes earlier. It felt hotter now. It was a blessed thing that Hurstran Squad, named for their first fallen member, was not on the list for patrols today. They'd just been back from a three day jaunt in the yard that had yielded nothing but a couple of packs of roving kvoodta, hairless scavengers that bore a faint resemblance to dogs. Their skin was a nasty-looking grey-green with wispy patterns of a light, grass-green running up their flanks. Damn near every animal in the yard looked like the fucking grass. And half of them were poisonous, or carnivorous.

"Hey there. Want company?" Korwin glanced over and saw Danna Kreth standing next to his crate, her jumpsuit similarly pushed down, although she wore an olive green tank top to preserve her modesty.

"Sure, seat's empty." Korwin scooted over, and as she sat down, he became keenly aware of just how beautiful she really was. She'd cut her hair short recently, at the behest of Sgt. Tandro, so that she didn't have to take the time to put it up in a bun before a mission. The new cut revealed much of her face, and made her all the more striking.

When they'd first started working together, he'd been very attracted to her, the hormones of a seventeen year old boy raging wild. Now, after surviving as many patrols as he had with her, he'd come to think of her more like a guardian angel. She'd saved them from getting the shit blown out of them more than once, and she always seemed to know when there was going to be trouble. "So, hot day huh?"

"Yeah. At least we don't have to patrol today. I'd hate to be out in this." She said.

Korwin took a bite of his ration bar, and said, whilst chewing, "We don't go out for another two days." He swallowed and continued, "At least that's what Tandro told me."

"Well, Tandro's just the patrol leader, he doesn't make the schedules." Kreth opened her canteen and took a couple small sips of water before replacing the cap and setting it down.

Korwin finished off his ration bar and said, "Well he's usually right, so I figure we shouldn't worry about it, you know?"

"Why?" She asked. "A whole squad could get vaped or something, and they could make us go out on their schedule, or something could come up that they need checked out. It happens."

"I wish you wouldn't say shit like that." Korwin muttered.

"Hey, Kreth, Nalan." A new voice called. They both looked to see Captain Borlin approaching them. They stood and saluted, and he returned the salute, before snapping out, "I want a word with you two." He then turned on his heel and headed for his tent.

Korwin and Kreth looked at each other and shrugged, and then got up and followed. When they entered his tent, they found him already sitting at his desk. He gestured to two chairs in front of the desk and said, "Sit down." When they'd complied, he said, "I want you two to put your minds at ease about this little meeting. You're not in trouble, and you've done nothing wrong, so far as I know. I called you here, because I have a job I need done, and I wanted to offer it to you two. I've already got two troops signed on, and I just need two more. You were recommended."

"What's the job sir?" Korwin asked.

"Well, do you want it?" the Captain asked, without answering his question.

"Is it dangerous?" Korwin asked, his eyebrows raising.

"Oh hell, Nalan, it's a sithspawned war! Of course it's dangerous!" The captain spat. "Now, answer me, and I'll answer you, or go back to your damn crate!"

Korwin looked at Kreth. She shrugged. "Why not?"

Korwin nodded. "Yeah, sure, okay."

Cpt. Borlin smiled, his demeanor changing instantly, and he stood up. "Good. Now, you two will be back here at 0700 for your briefing, and to meet the other two members of your team. Say nothing of this to anyone. Dismissed."

Korwin and Kreth stood and saluted their Captain, and then left his tent. Kreth looked at Korwin with a raised eyebrow. "So...I wonder what that was about."

"We'll find out at 0700."

* * *

Korwin walked into Captain Borlin's tent at precisely 0700, and was pleasantly surprised to see who the other two troops were. Aside from the Captain, his aide-de-camp Lt. Zcyllen, and Kreth, the other two people in the room were Sgt. Tandro, and Cpl. Dilan Kierse. Korwin grinned, and said, "Glad to see someone else was dumb enough to do this."

Kierse leaned over and shook his hand, then Kreth's. "Hell Nalan, when he asked, I couldn't turn him down. Especially when I heard Tandro had recommended you and Kreth to go along. Can't have you out there without some competent back up. You might get shot."

"Piss off Kierse! The only reason you're still alive is because you don't make a big enough target for the Imps to hit. You're too fucking skinny." Said Tandro, with a smile on his face, as he too shook Korwin and Kreth's hands.

Captain Borlin stood behind his desk with his hands behind his back, and a small smile on his face. He cleared his throat softly to get everyone's attention. "I'm glad you all could make it." His smile disappeared, and he turned to the other man in the room, who was standing beside a large holoscreen. "Lt. Zcyllen, if you will?"

The Lt., an Iridonian, nodded his horned head and said, "Of course sir." He flipped a switch at the bottom of the screen, and it came to life, displaying a map of the area from their own base camp, to well beyond the enemy patrol bases. Korwin noticed that there were several structures outlined in red on the map, some ways behind the enemy patrol bases.

The Lt. Picked up a laser pointer and said, "You are about to embark on a high-priority night-patrol. This mission will likely take you two days from insertion to extraction. You will be airlifted in a box, specially outfitted for stealth, to this point, a mile behind the enemy patrol bases. You will then take a southerly heading until you reach this area, here." He pointed to the small cluster of buildings that Korwin had noticed, after tracing a red line along the intended route. Clicking a small button on the laser pointer enlarged the picture, and they saw that there was a large landing pad with a few shuttles sitting on it, as well as sixteen barracks-size buildings, an air-control tower, and several large turbolaser batteries.

"This is the Imp's command center on Gnazt, administrated by Commander Gezz Markane, CO of the 131st Stormtrooper Infantry Division. These pictures were taken three days ago. Two days ago, we were suddenly unable to photograph that area. There is something interfering with our cameras in space, and the Imps have apparently got some mean anti-aircraft lasers." He and Captain Borlin shared a humorless chuckle at that statement. The chuckling stopped, and the Lt. continued with his briefing. "We need ground reconnaissance of the area to determine what the Imps are doing. If possible, avoid contact with the enemy. Operating only under cover of darkness is your best means to do that. Your survival, and the delivery of this information, depends largely on you passing through unnoticed."

The younger four soldiers said nothing as Lt. Zcyllen continued. "After you have completed recon of the area around their command center, you will head east two miles." He traced a route over the grasslands, came to an elevated knoll, and stopped, marking a waypoint with the pointer. "Then you will take a northerly course until you have reached this stand of basa trees, here." He traced another line down to a stand of trees that looked to be almost nine miles north of the waypoint. "Once you reach this stand of trees, one of you will place this homing beacon," he pulled a small homing device from the right thigh pocket of his jumpsuit, "in a safe, hidden place and activate it to notify us that you are ready to come back. You will then move another mile west, to this small lake, for extraction. Do not miss the box picking you up, or you'll have to walk back, because you're still in Imp territory. Orders are to wait for one minute and then take off if you're not there. Understood?"

"Yes sir." Chorused the four troops. Korwin piped up, "Why put the homing beacon in those trees, and then leave?"

"Because private, the Imps might be able to pick up it's signal as well."

"Ah."

"If that's all? Good. Now, head to your tent and gear up. Captain Borlin will be by in a few to give you some help. Dismissed." The four of them turned to leave when Lt. Zcyllen said, "Oh, Cpl. Kierse...you're being reassigned to Hurstran squad permanently, so move your belongings to their tent. That'll be all."

"Yes sir." Said Kierse as he followed the others out of the command tent. He slugged Korwin on the shoulder. "Guess that means you and me get to spend a little more quality time together, eh?"

Korwin grinned. "Guess it does."

Kierse went to get his things together, while the other three headed to their tent to get geared up. Kierse arrived not too long after to claim his cot and gear up, and they all stood near their cots, quietly conversing, putting on their combat gear. They were almost ready to go, when Captain Borlin stepped into the tent. "Just thought I'd come by and offer some assistance. I used to do recon patrols in the Clone Wars, so I've got a few tricks up my sleeve."

Korwin's head snapped over to Borlin. "You fought in the Clone Wars? But you're not a clone, are you?"

Captain Borlin threw his head back and laughed, long and hard. When it finally subsided, he put his hand on his forehead and sighed, a large grin still on his face. "No, son, I'm not a clone. I was a member of the Nubian Special Forces, from Naboo. The clones weren't the only members of the Republic Armed Forces."

"Wow." Said Kreth. "So what kind of tips do you have for us?"

"Well, for one, this." The Captain pulled a large roll of matte green tape from a jumpsuit pocket. "Wrap this around anything that shines, and any loose pieces of metal that might make a noise when they touch something." He tossed the roll to Kreth first, and supervised as she placed tape around the arming rings on her grenades, the metal buckles on her combat harness and pack, and anything else he deemed tape-worthy. When she was done, he said, "Okay, now put on your pack, and pick up your rifle." She did as she was told, lifting up the pack and putting her arms through the straps, then picking her blaster rifle up off her cot. "Now jump up and down." Kreth raised her eyebrows, but didn't jump. "I'm not trying to make a fool of you, I'm trying to see if you make noise! Now jump, dammit!" The Captain barked.

"Yes sir." Said Kreth, startled by the sudden change in tone, and she did as told. There was no clinking of metal, or clicking of plasteel, only the soft rustling of cloth on cloth, and her feet lightly hitting the ground. "Wow, that's great!" She said. "We should have been doing that all along!"

The captain nodded his head, as if it was obvious, and said, "Well, now you can teach it to the other units. Pass the tape on." She handed the tape to Korwin, whose cot was next to hers. "Here."

"Thanks." He said, and he began taping his gear like he'd seen Kreth do. When he was done, he jumped up and down, noticed he'd missed a buckle on his harness when it clinked lightly on the side of a grenade. He taped it, and then jumped up and down again. Satisfied that he wouldn't make any excessive noise, he looked up to see Captain Borlin holding a stick of something that looked like black and green deodorant. Passing the tape to Tandro, he listened to the Captain's explanation of the object in his hand.

"This is greasepaint. It's mottled, black and green, to help you blend in with the grass, and the shadows." He handed it to Kreth. "Cover any exposed skin, including hands, neck, the back of your neck, your arms, I mean anything exposed. Because it's oil-based, it won't come off completely without a good hard scrubbing with soap and water; it will fade with time, so take the stick with you, and replenish as needed."

Korwin held out his dark-skinned arms. "Even me, sir?"

"Even you Korwin. You might be dark-skinned, but you sure as hell aren't green, and your skin is uniform in color. That'll give you a defining outline, which you don't want. The mottling will help break that up."

As they passed the camo stick around and painted themselves up, the Captain said, "One more thing before I go. Get some floppy-brimmed bush hats from Meebeb, or something, and cover your heads. The brim's will help break up your outline in the yard and help you stand out less, plus not a one of you has green hair. Good luck." With that, the Captain turned on his heel and walked out of the tent.

When they were all finished with their preparations, Tandro said, "Well, let's get over to Meebeb's, and get to the box."

* * *

"Now, I'm sure that many of our viewers don't know what a 'box' is. Can you explain?" Asked Laina. 

Korwin nodded, and said, "Of course." He picked up his water, and took a sip, before saying, "The box was the standard method of on-planet transportation for small units of troops over short distances; short distances being anything under fifty miles. Now, the box was the same transport used in the clone wars. It was about fifteen feet tall, from base to top, and it had an open fuselage, meaning that there were no walls where we sat. You had the cockpit, with the pilot and co-pilot, and then behind that was the body of the vehicle, where the soldiers sat. As I said, it was open on both sides. I used to love to sit with my legs dangling off the edge, and just watch the ground rushing by, feel the wind on my face. You couldn't lean out too far though, because those things moved pretty fast, and the wind-blast could pull you right out. I saw that happen once, and believe me, it wasn't a pretty sight."

"Oh, I believe you." Laina made a few notes on her datapad, and then said, "Could you go ahead and continue with the story then?"

"Sure." Korwin took another sip of water and began again. "We stopped by Meebeb's to get our bush hats, which we'd seen a few other troops wearing. They had the same camo design as our jumpsuits, and had these floppy, cloth brims that went all the way around." He cleared his throat. "Excuse me." He cleared it again, and chuckled. "Sorry about that...where was I?" He thought for a moment. "Ah yes, the bush hats. We got our bush hats and then got to the landing pad for pick up. The box they had was painted black, and I could just barely hear the engines. That thing was whisper quiet, which is impressive, because normally you had to shout to be heard over the engine wash. When we got on board, the box lifted off and headed south, for enemy territory. It was about that time that I started getting nervous..."

* * *

Korwin felt the tiny butterfly wings tickling the inside of his stomach as he watched the grass fly by beneath him. It looked so much darker without the sun illuminating it, and Korwin could imagine the green-armored Imperial Elite's skulking about in it, waiting to ambush the unsuspecting rebels. He'd run into the Elite's only once, on a patrol. Their armor had been green camo, just like the rebel jumpsuits, and they had been amazingly quiet as they'd snuck up on the small rebel patrol. 

Imperial regulars were easy to spot in the field. White-armored and noisome, they stood out in the tall green grass, as obvious as a basa tree, and communicated out loud over their comms. Not so the silent green shadows that were the Stormtrooper Elite's. Turneen and Vashta had been killed by a grenade before they'd even realized what was happening, and Kreth had been shot in the calf. They'd managed to kill an Elite and escape quickly, but Korwin had no illusions that they'd come out on top in that one. They were lucky to have gotten away. Even Kreth hadn't caught them sneaking up.

He sighed, and pushed the negative thoughts to the back of his mind, as he'd learned to do. They wouldn't help anyone out here, least of all him. He closed his eyes and relaxed as the air rushing past him gave the illusion of a cool evening. It was very hot in the daytime, usually around 95 degrees, but the temperature lowered to a cooler 75 to 80 in the night.

Korwin knew why he was nervous. In the two months he'd been fighting on Gnazt, he'd never operated at night. They kept the night for making camp, and the daytime for moving about. This was different. But while he was nervous, he also felt a sense of confidence. He'd survived some nasty scrapes thus far. He'd get through this just fine.

The box began to descend quickly towards the grass, and Korwin slipped on his pack and grabbed his blaster rifle. Within a few seconds, the box had descended from it's altitude of close to fifty feet to stop at a hover only a yard off the ground. Korwin pushed off the edge of the doorway and scooted his butt off the floor, landing lightly in the grass that was flattened by the small transports repulsors. He took a few quick steps to get him out of the way as the other three followed behind him. Kierse was the last to exit, and as soon as he'd touched the ground, the box ascended and turned back to base. Korwin watched it go, and gave a soft snicker. "The black box." He whispered softly, with a chuckle.

Tandro signaled for the group to move into the standing grass, as the area they'd landed in was still quite flat. It would take a few minutes for the grass to stand back up. When they'd gotten into cover, they huddled together, crouched low, as Tandro pulled a small holoprojector from his thigh pocket. He activated it, and they saw a miniature version of the map from the command tent. "Okay, it's currently 2213. That means we've got about seven hours of darkness to work with." He whispered. Clicking off the map, he whispered, "Let's move out. Kreth, take point."

Tandro pocketed the holoprojector and watched as Kreth began moving off, still bent low, in the direction of the enemy command center. Korwin took care to step softly as he started off after Kreth and Tandro, and did his best to disturb the grass as little as possible.

By the time it had started getting light, they were nearing their objective. Kreth held up her hand to signal a stop and then raised her head ever so slightly above the grass. A moment later, she crouched back down and whispered, "We're getting close, I can see the air control tower. We need to find a place to rest until nightfall."

Tandro nodded his agreement, and, pulling out and activating the map, whispered, "There's a stand of Basa about a half-mile west southwest." He pointed to it on the map. "We'll make for the trees and camp out there."

Korwin and Kierse said nothing, but followed as Kreth and Tandro started off for the trees. It wasn't long before they'd reached them. They moved to a tree that was close to the center, where the trees were denser and the grass not as long, and sat down. Tandro said, "We'll wait here until the sun goes down. We watch in two hour shifts. Korwin, you take first watch, Kreth, you get second, I'll take third, and Kierse, you get the last one." Tandro removed his pack, and set it down at the base of the tree. He laid down and rested his head on it, putting his bush hat over his face. Kreth and Kierse followed suit, and the three of them were sleeping in no time.

Korwin set his pack down and sat down on it, settling in for one of the most boring, yet potentially dangerous, parts of any patrol. Watch was usually dull, as there was nothing to do but sit and wait for something to happen, but it was likewise nerve-wracking for the same reason. That and the thought that at that moment, everyone depended on your alertness for their lives.

Luckily, his shift passed without event, and after two hours, he shook Kreth awake for her turn. "Kreth." He whispered as she removed her bush hat from her face. "It's your turn." Kreth sat up and took up her rifle without a word, setting her bush hat back on top of her short black hair and sitting down on her pack. Korwin laid down with his head on his pack, covered his face with his hat, and drifted off to sleep.

* * *

"That first night was something else. Just the whole dynamic of the patrol was completely different." Korwin said shaking his greying head, and smiling as he said it. 

"Why is that?" Asked Laina.

"Well, for one, it was dark outside. We had some moonlight to work with, but that was it. Also, you have to remember that we'd just been inserted into enemy territory. As far as we knew, there'd been no patrols that far back. So it was a little different than what I was used to by then, you know?"

Laina smiled, and said, "I can only imagine." Setting her datapad down she said, "Well, I don't know about you, but I could use some lunch."

Korwin nodded and grinned. "Like I said, I don't like to miss a meal."

"Good," said Laina, "Then we'll break for lunch, and continue in an hour or so."

The holocameras went offline, and Korwin sighed deeply. Calling up memories of the war was easy, but exhausting. They were as vivid as they were the day after they'd happened. A good lunch, and a little rest, would go a long way towards replenishing his story-telling stamina. "How about Corellian? My treat."


	5. Soldier 04

Korwin sighed contentedly and sipped from his water glass. The spicy scent of Corellian food, from the lunch they'd had delivered, still hung in the air, creating a warm, pleasant feeling in the room. "So, I think I had just gone to sleep."

Laina nodded. "I believe you had."

"I was woken up around sunset..."

* * *

"Nalan, wake up...wake up, man, it's time to move out." Korwin opened his eyes and saw Kierse's black and green face above him. Korwin sat up slowly and worked his arms in small circles. He stood up halfway and stretched a bit, before picking up his pack and his rifle. Everyone else was ready to go.

Tandro looked at everyone, nodded his head, and waved Kreth ahead. Taking point, Kreth started off towards the Imperial base. Tandro followed, then Korwin, then Kierse. Korwin had long ago learned not to try to see anything through the grass, but was instead trying to hear anything out of the ordinary over the soft whisper of the grass being pushed aside.

They'd been walking through the yard for some time, and must have been nearing the edge of the grass, when Korwin heard what he thought was a footstep nearby. He quickly tapped Tandro on the shoulder, and Tandro did likewise with Kreth. They both turned and looked at Korwin. He put a finger to his ear, and then pointed off to their right, where the sound had come from. Tandro nodded his head, and they all sat still for a moment. Then they heard it. Several sets of footsteps coming from their right, getting closer.

No one moved, knowing that if they did, the Imps might hear the grass rustling. Korwin looked behind him, and couldn't see Kierse through the grass and his camouflage, but heard him breathing softly. A moment later, his view of the grass was obstructed by a white-armored hand that nearly smacked him in the face. He almost yelped, when he realized that the stormtrooper it was attached to had simply been walking by him. He'd passed close enough to pat Korwin on the head and didn't even see him. More followed, six passing by in all before they were past the hidden rebels.

Everyone stayed still for almost two minutes, before Korwin saw Kierse move through the grass, closer to him. Tandro waved them on, and they began moving slowly towards the base. A few minutes later, Kreth stopped. Tandro moved up next to her, and waved Korwin and Kierse up alongside them. They were there. A belt of knee-high grass about a hundred yards wide encircled the compound, and they saw that there were tall metal fences going around the compound itself.

They were currently facing the air control tower, which was at the end of a long, two-story building. Not being able to see the landing pad from this side, obscured by buildings as it was, they began slowly making their way around the perimeter of the base, staying in the tall grass so as to avoid being spotted. When they again came to a halt, they were stunned.

Sitting on the landing pads, in three neat rows of twelve, were thirty-six TIE bombers. They could see techs and mechanics working on the aircraft as well.

Korwin looked up to the sky, beseeching any deity he could think of to send those bombers somewhere other than their base. Or worse, their rear echelon hospital, where the severely wounded went until a ship could get through the Imp blockade to evacuate them. Of course, the worst scenario of all was the command center being wiped out with the hospital. Both were several miles behind the patrol base that Korwin worked out of, and he had been to neither of them. But he knew that they were crucial to their operations on Gnazt.

As he gazed at the stars, he saw one moving. At first thinking it to be a shooting star, he almost started to make a wish, but caught himself when he realized that it was growing closer. He nudged Tandro and Kierse with his elbow, and pointed up. They looked to the sky, and then Tandro nudged Kreth and bid her do likewise. They watched as the speck of light grew slowly larger.

Within a couple of minutes, the object had resolved itself into the shape of an Imperial ship of middling transport size. Korwin watched as it landed, and opened up to pour forth an entire company of stormtroopers, marching in formation. They turned and made way for the barracks once they were out of their ship. Tandro removed his pack, and pulled out a small datapad and began making quick notes of everything they were seeing.

After watching from their spots in the grass for nearly an hour, Tandro packed up the datapad and motioned for Kreth to begin moving toward the extraction zone. She did as ordered, immediately taking a point position and gliding silently away through the grass. The rest of the group followed, with Korwin in the third position again.

He kept a firm grip on his blaster rifle, and kept his ears as open as possible, knowing that they were at a crucial moment in the mission. If they were caught now, it was likely that sometime within the next couple of weeks, General Oreth's 1st Light Infantry Regiment would cease to exist as a credible fighting force.

The small unit made good time getting to their first waypoint, coming to the knoll within an hour. Korwin wished that they could stand up straight and walk normally; they'd probably have been there in half that time. But stealth was still required, and they couldn't move too fast in the tall grasses, or they would make too much noise.

When they hit the base of the knoll, Kreth turned the party due north. After a couple of miles, they began to pick up their pace a bit. Korwin felt a twinge of nervousness as he knew that they were being a bit louder than they ought to, but his excitement at being so close to completing the mission overrode his cautionary instincts for once. He didn't voice any objections as they hurried to the stand of basa's.

When they finally got to the trees, they all shared a quick smile, as they stood upright for a moment, securely cloaked in the shadows of the trees and their good camouflage. Still though, not a word was said as Tandro pulled the homing beacon out of one of his jumpsuit's cargo pockets. He twisted the top and pressed a small button on the side, and a small green light came on with a soft _ping_.

Tandro crouched low in the grass again, at the base of a tree, and Korwin lost sight of him. When he stood back up, he was again holding his blaster rifle. He held up his hand and gave the signal to move out. Korwin and Kierse followed Kreth and Tandro, crouching in the grass again as they made their way unerringly towards the extraction point. The grass was chest high in this area, but seemed much thinner, and Korwin could easily make out his comrades, knowing what to look for.

As Kierse stepped out of the trees, Korwin heard a soft squishing sound, and a muted curse from Kierse. He turned, glaring hard, and Kierse slapped a hand over his mouth. He then pointed down.

Before looking down, Korwin looked over his shoulder, and saw that both Tandro and Kreth had stopped, and were looking at them. Korwin looked to where Kierse pointed and saw a pile of something he couldn't quite make out. Then the smell hit him; Human feces. He made a face, his nose wrinkling in disgust. Then his eyes went wide.

If it was soft still, and stunk like that, it was reasonably fresh. Alliance ration bars gave exactly the nutrients needed, and nothing else, so after a couple weeks of eating those, bowel functions slowed to a crawl, as everything was absorbed into the system. Neither Korwin, Kierse, Tandro, or Kreth had left it, that was for sure.

Korwin signaled for everyone to stay low and keep still. He crouched low and slowly looked back and forth, looking for any sign that there were Imps immediately nearby. Then he noticed some grass out of place. It wasn't so much that it had been trampled, or stepped on, but like it had been pushed aside recently, and whoever had done it hadn't been careful enough. Korwin stared hard at the area, and then caught his breath. There was movement! He kept perfectly still, his ears straining to hear anything.

When he heard the soft, high-pitched whine of a plasma grenade priming, somewhere to his front and left,he reacted. His rifle whipped up to his shoulder, and he squeezed off a five round burst at the sound. He heard the familiar, tinny voice of a stormtrooper, as the man grunted in pain. Korwin felt a moment of elation, realizing he'd stopped the grenade from being thrown, when the object in question thudded onto the ground a few feet away and rolled to a stop between Korwin and Kierse.

"Grenade!" Korwin shouted, just before an explosion ripped through the air around them. Grass and dirt went flying, and the night flashed a bright red as the plasma ignited and went from liquid to searing, blinding energy. Now they found themselves in a clearing, the ground gouged and blackened, and the grass burned away by the plasma.

Korwin felt an irritating burning sensation in the middle of his back, and could dimly hear the sounds of blaster fire coming from all around him. He tried to move, but felt sluggish and tired. It felt, and sounded, like he was underwater. He heard somebody shouting his name, and felt his body being jostled about. His head began to clear a bit, and he shook it hard. The voice resolved itself into Kierse's.

"...gotta help me get his damn pack off, the plasma's burned through!"

Korwin came back to himself completely, and suddenly the pain in his back intensified. He was laying on his stomach, and Kierse was cutting the straps of his pack with quick swipes of his vibrodagger, while Kreth and Tandro provided covering fire.

Once the pack was off, Kierse pulled his own pack off and pulled out his small medkit. When he began putting sterilizing powder on the wound, Korwin began to scream, but he choked it off, and it turned into a wracking half-sob. The pain was excruciating. He tried to stand up, to get away from it, but was pushed back down by firm hands on his shoulders. "

Stay down man, let me do this!" shouted Kierse over the fierce lightfight going on in the background. Korwin heard the sound of another grenade going off, and then he heard Tandro's voice shouting something about extraction. He couldn't make it all out over the sounds of combat.

He felt another wave of pain roll through his body, starting at his back. He bit off another scream, and then shouted hoarsely, "Sithspit Kierse, it fucking hurts! How bad is it! Am I gonna fucking die out here!"

"No man, you're gonna be fine! It's not bad, it just feels like it! You're gonna be okay!" Kierse shouted back. "Just hang in there man, soon as I get you patched up, we're meeting the box!"

Korwin felt despair wash over him. They would never make it if they stayed with him! The box would leave if they weren't there! "Dammit, go! You won't get there in time if you stay to fix me up."

"Shut the fuck up Nalan!" Korwin didn't say anything else, knowing that it wouldn't help. He wouldn't leave any of them, and they wouldn't leave him. He knew that.

Korwin's back was burning continuously now, and he screamed again, a long,hoarse, raw-throated yell.

"Hang in there brother, I'm all done. Can you hold your rifle?" Kierse asked him, his mouth to his ear.

Korwin nodded, but didn't open his mouth for fear that he'd scream again. Tears were running down his cheeks as Kierse lifted him onto his shoulders and shouted, "GO, GO, GO!" to Kreth and Tandro.

Korwin gritted his teeth against the pain and squinted his eyes shut as he was jostled and bounced about on his running comrades shoulders. Every bounce, every shift, every tiny contortion brought a fresh wave of pain. He'd never felt anything like it, had never imagined anything like it. It was made worse by the fact that they were getting shot at, and being unable to fight back, Korwin flinched every time a stray bolt sizzled past.

Suddenly, he was sliding off Kierse's shoulders, and he felt his face pressing against a cold metal surface. He would have smiled, knowing they'd made it, but the pain was too much. He could still hear the sounds of blaster fire as the box lifted violently off the ground, and the door gunners added the deeper, punchier baritone of their heavy repeating blasters to the high-pitched sounds of the rifles.

This time, when the pain washed over him, he just moaned quietly. He was uncertain of exactly how long it took them to get back to base, but he certainly felt them begin their descent. When the box had touched down, Korwin felt several sets of gentle hands slowly lifting him up, but even that caused him pain. He was placed on a stretcher, on his stomach, and he felt them moving him somewhere. He tried to think of where they would take him, but couldn't make his mind work through the pain.

He closed his eyes and bit his lip, and waited for it to stop. It did, soon. As they were moving, he felt a small prick in his back, and would have arched up in agony, had not his limbs suddenly felt leaden, and his mind foggy. He became only dimly aware of the pain, and then he became aware only of the blissful floating feeling he had. It was as if he were in space. He smiled dreamily, and drifted gently into a deep sleep.

* * *

"I've never felt pain like that since. That was the only time I was hit by a plasma grenade, thank the force." Korwin said, a haunted expression on his face. "Worst pain I've ever felt, by far."

"How extensive was the damage to your back?" Laina asked.

"I lost, and never recovered, feeling in that area of my back. It's in the center, about eight inches from left to right, and about four inches wide. It's an irregular burn pattern, from the plasma blast. From what Dilan later told me, I had turned my back and lost my balance just before it went off. I guess I started falling backwards, so when it exploded, I was a couple feet above it with my pack between me and the blast. That's what saved me. The explosion threw me back over onto my stomach, and a good amount of the plasma blast had hit my pack before it could spread. It burned right through my pack, my medkit, my rations, everything, and right into my back."

"So I assume they took you to the field hospital, then."

"Yes, they did, and after that, the hospital back at the rear. I was there for almost two weeks. They cloned pieces of skin to put over the burned area, but it still visibly scarred in places. They were hoping that the new skin would let my nerve endings grow back, or something like that, but it didn't work. So it looks pretty okay from a distance, but I can't feel anything." He chuckled.

"What happened after the hospital?" Asked Laina.

"Well, I went back to my unit. I got back just in time, too."

"Just in time for what?"

"The big one."

* * *

Korwin hopped out of the box, his blaster rifle in hand, his combat gear packed into a small duffel he'd gotten from the hospital. He smiled, and looked around himself at the small tent town that was the rebel patrol base. He was back where he belonged.

He turned and waved his thanks to the pilots of the box as they lifted off and headed back for the rear. He pulled his bush hat off his head and folded it up, tucking it into the right butt pocket of his new jumpsuit. His old one had been completely ruined by the burning plasma.

After satisfying his need to bask in the hot, humid, insect-filled glow of the camp, he began walking in long strides to his tent. When he got there, he entered to find that only Private Pazt Jezrak, the Kel Dor, was there. Pazt looked over at Korwin, and though he couldn't see Jezrak's face through his adamantine breath mask, he imagined he was smiling when he said, "Nalan, it's good to see you. The force has given you strength."

Korwin shook his head and said, "Man, all that force shit is a little weird for me...but thanks, Jezrak." He tossed his duffeldown next tohis cot, and sat down. "So, where is everybody?" All four squads of 3rd platoon were out of the tent, which was highly unusual.

"They are in the yard, playing with the Imps. The Imps have been coming closer and closer to the base lately. There's too many for us to hold them back." Jezrak responded in a tinny monotone that almost resembled a stormtrooper's voice. His ability to mimic stormtroopers using the comm on his breathmask had allowed him to engineer some incredibly effective ambushes in the past months.

Korwin laid down on his cot, and asked, "Why are you still here? Why aren't you with em'?"

"My foot." Was the soft response. Korwin lifted his head and looked over at his friend. The end of his right leg was swathed in heavy white bandages. There was no visible blood, but Korwin knew that didn't mean anything.

"Is it still there?" Korwin asked.

"No. I stepped on a mine. And right now, there are not enough mechanical feet to go around. They're pretty rare to begin with." Jezrak's tone hadn't changed, but Korwin could still hear the sadness in his voice.

"Hey man, they'll get you one." Korwin said, trying to sound reassuring.

"Possibly. I am on a waiting list. But I am very far down on the waiting list." Jezrak folded his hands across his stomach. "It will be a long time, so they are sending me home."

"You okay with that?" Korwin asked.

Jezrak took a moment to reply, but when he did, his voice was stronger than before. "Yes, I am. I have done my duty, and given my best. I will go home, and live a good life. I have no regrets."

"I'm happy for you then." Korwin meant what he said, but he couldn't imagine himself leaving his unit now. He trusted Faroul to keep his word about helping his family, so he knew they were provided for. But what about his comrades?

If he hadn't heard the stormtroopers on the way in to the enemy command center, they'd have been caught there, and quickly killed or captured when the Imps came out in force. If he hadn't fallen on the grenade, Kreth, Tandro, and Kierse would likely be dead. They needed him out there. And they didn't have him now. "Have we lost anyone else?"

"No."

Nothing else was said between the two of them, and when the nurses from the field hospital came with a hoverchair for Jezrak, they said no goodbyes. Jezrak simply held out his hand as he passed, and Korwin clasped it, and held on until it was pulled from his grasp.

Korwin laid there long after Jezrak was gone. He felt strange about it all. So far, they'd lost Hurstran, Vashta and Turneen, and now Jezrak. And that was just Hurstran squad. 3rd platoon as a whole had lost sixteen men total. An average of four casualties per squad. It could have been worse, but it still wasn't good by any stretch of the imagination.

He remembered Vashta and Turneen, walking side by side, whispering something to each other. A moment later, they were literally shredded by shrapnel, as a high-powered frag grenade dropped right in front of them and exploded.

Vashta's face was a ruin of bone and soft, pulpy flesh. At least he had died instantly. Turneen's torso had been peppered with shrapnel, but his head had not been hit. No arteries had been hit either, but most of his internal organs had been perforated numerous times. Korwin had tried to administer first aid, but he couldn't stop the bleeding.

He'd opened up Turneen's jumpsuit and there had been blood everywhere. As fast as he'd wipe the blood away, more would gush out. Kreth had been hit by a blaster bolt, but she tried to help by pressing bandages down on Turneen's ruined torso. They were rendered useless in moments, drenched through with his blood.

It took him almost three minutes to bleed to death, and he'd never once made a sound. He'd just kept his eyes on Korwin's, and when he knew that it was too late, he'd snatched Korwin's hand with his, and grabbed Kreth's with the other. He'd closed his eyes, and they watched, horrified, as he began to drown in his own blood. His grip on Korwin's hand had been so tight that he could feel the knuckles beginning to crack.

Turneen had begun to convulse violently then, blood gurgling in his throat and foaming out of his mouth as he tried to breath through it, and Korwin had wrapped his arms around him in a vain effort to hold him still, naively thinking that if they could just get him to stop jerking, they could still stop the bleeding.

He had gone still eventually, but when Korwin looked at his face, he'd seen the vacant, soulless stare of the dead. Turneen's face was white as a sheet above his mouth, a sticky, crimson mess beneath. There wasn't much blood left in him. It had run out. Korwin had dimly realized that most of it was on him as he'd stood up and stepped away from the body to assist in the fighting.

Another grenade came sailing in, and Korwin had kicked it away, glad to see it detonate some twenty feet away, behind a couple oftrees. As he'd turned his attention back to the lightfight, an Imperial Elite had stumbled through the grass from the direction of the explosion, his hands to his helmeted head.

Korwin had fired a single blaster bolt, point blank, directly into his faceplate. His head had virtually exploded in a shower of sparks, green plasteel, and bits of blackened skull. Then he'd heard Tandro shouting to withdraw, as a box touched down behind them, the door gunners blazing away into the grass.

Korwin rolled his eyes, and silently scolded himself for letting his thoughts go down those paths. There would be plenty of time to think about that shit after the war. Korwin then realized that he didn't really have anything to do after the war. He couldn't go home, and he didn't have anywhere else to go.

Resolving not to worry about those things right now, he allowed himself to fall asleep in the relative security of his tent.

Korwin was awakened by alarm klaxons going off. He rolled off his cot and hurriedly opened his duffel and began removing his gear. He put on his combat harness and buckled it closed, grabbed four blaster paks and slipped them into place, and sheathed his vibrodagger at his back.

He had no grenades, and no first aid on him, and if the alarm was for real, he probably didn't have time to look. He grabbed his blaster rifle and put on his bush hat and rushed out of the tent. He was relieved when he saw Cluthlth'lu running towards him, his gear still on from the field.

"Nalan!" He shouted in his odd, almost harmonic voice. "The Imps are coming, the TIE bombers lifted off two minutes ago! We just got word from a patrol near the enemy base! Find cover!"

Korwin looked around, and saw people running every which way. It was chaos. There was no way he was sticking around. "There_is_ no cover, we only have one bunker! Where do you think they'll send the stormtroopers after the bombers are gone! I'm going into the yard!"

Cluthlth'lu shouted back, "You're mad Nalan, the place has been crawling with Imps for a week, we can't keep them out anymore!"

"That's what I'm counting on! Where's everyone else!"

"Headed to the bunker!"

"Sithspit!" Korwin shouted. "I'm going to get them, and we're going to the yard."

Cluthlth'lu shook his head, and yelled, "Suicide, and I'll not participate! You can go if you like, but I'm staying here!"

Korwin nodded, angry at the alien for wanting to hide, and ran off with him. They arrived at the bunker, and Korwin saw people running inside as fast as the small opening would allow. He saw Several members of Hurstran squad waiting to get in, and shouted, "Hey, I'm going into the yard to find some Imps. They're gonna attack here after the TIE's get through! We need to slow them down."

Several of his squadmates ignored him outright, but Tandro, Kreth, and Kierse stepped out of line. Korwin grinned at them, and hollered over the blaring alarms, "Who's got the greasepaint?"

* * *

Korwin sprinted over the ruined, crater-filled ground, just behind Tandro. They had painted themselves in the field, just before the grass had started burning, and Korwin was the only one who had needed the time to tape his gear. It hadn't taken long, and as soon as he was ready, they'd rushed off in search of incoming Imp regulars to ambush.

It turned out he had been right about leaving the bunker. When they'd left, several other small groups of soldiers had followed their example, taking their gear and hightailing it into the yard in every direction, to hide from the bombs, and to slow the infantry they knew would follow. Just after they'd reached the edge of camp, the first TIE bombers had screamed over the tents and loosed their bombs. Screams were heard as a few of them found the large crowd waiting to get into the bunker. Idiots, Korwin thought bitterly.

Then they'd startedbombing the yard around the camp too, trying to hit the stragglers. For once, Korwin took point instead of Kreth, as he seemed to have some idea what he was doing. He didn't know exactly where he was going, just that he was sure that something was leading him to the enemy he so desperately needed to find if he was to slow their advance.

He ignored the bombs falling all around them, and continued running at a breakneck pace as the grasslands were leveled by the passing TIE's. There was a stand of basa trees off to the left about two hundred feet from their position, and Korwin glanced that way. There was still plenty of grass around there, and he quickly saw why.

There were several stormtroopers standing nonchalantly at their full height just inside the trees, not at allworried about being seen. And they didn't see the rebels. They were obviously new to the yard. They'd have to educate them about the dangers of being careless on rebel ground.

Korwin sprinted for the grass, and then crouched low and continued running towards the trees. He stopped about forty feet away, and peeked again. A quick count revealed a whole platoon of Stormtroopers, apparently waiting for the bombers to finish their work before advancing on the rebel base.

Korwin ducked back down, and, not worried overmuch about silence, what with the bombs dropping, shouted, "Give me a grenade!" to Kreth as she dropped to a crouch beside him.

She removed a concussion grenade from her harness and handed it to him. She then took two off for herself, after slinging her rifle over her shoulder. Korwin looked at Tandro and Kierse, and saw each of them holding two grenades, one in each hand.

Korwin nodded, and then turned and began running towards the trees. He stayed low as he went, and when he was within about twenty feet, he stood for just long enough to pitch his grenade into the center of the mass. As he ducked and covered his head to avoid as much concussion from the powerful blast as he could, he heard the exclamations of surprise from the Imps.

Just after his grenade went off, the other's did as well. He couldn't see the carnage just yet, but he was sure they'd gotten a bunch of them. He stayed down, as Kreth, Kierse, and Tandro loosed their second volley of grenades. When those had gone off, Korwin sprang to his feet and charged into the mangled stand of ruinedhalf-trees, blasting left and right at anything white that looked like it might be moving. His three companions werehard on his heels, rifles blazing.

He felt the heat of a few passing energy bolts, but adrenaline was flooding his veins, and he felt no fear, knew they couldn't hit him now. The bodies of many of the stormtroopers already littered the torn copse of basa trees, thanks to the grenades, and the small unit of battle-hardened rebels took no time at all to mop up the stunned survivors.

When it was over, Tandro patted Korwin on the shoulder. "Good call Nalan."

Korwin nodded his thanks. He heard a groan from nearby, and turned to face the sound. A stormtrooper, wounded in the short lightfight, had removed his helmet, and was in the process of trying to stand. Korwin spat on the ground, and began walking toward the Imp. He was a young man, maybe a little older than Korwin, with pale skin, and blond hair. His eyes, green eyes Korwin noted absently, widened when he saw the green and black apparition that approached him.

The young Imp stayed on his knees, and held up his hands to Korwin. He opened his mouth to speak, but Korwin didn't give him the chance. He drew his blaster pistol from the holster on his hip and shot the young man once through the heart. He keeled over backwards, shock evident in his eyes as their light faded forever.

Korwin holstered his blaster and turned back to his comrades. "We should keep moving." He said. The bombardment had ceased during the combat, and Korwin was certain they wouldn't be alone for long.

Kreth shook her head. "No, we should hide, and set up an ambush."

Tandro, who had rank, and was the squad the leader, said, "I'm with Kreth. They probably won't send more than a squad to check it out." He turned to Kreth. "Kreth, booby trap a couple of the bodies around the perimeter with grenades, then find a spot to sit tight and wait. Everyone else, find a good hide. If it looks like too much for us when they get here, we'll move out and regroup a hundred yards to the north, and hope the traps get a couple. Otherwise, we take em'."

Korwin waited until Tandro had finished giving his orders, and then moved to the base of a tree at the outside of the copse, opposite the place where the grenades had fallen. The grass here hadn't been shredded byshrapnel and blaster fire, so it was easy for him to blend in. He squatted down, rifle at the ready, and settled in to wait.

He didn't have to wait long. About ten minute later a squad of stormtroopers, this group more cautious than the unfortunates that currently lay scattered about, crept slowly into the clearing that the grenades had created in the trees. Korwin watched as they moved from body to body, checking for signs of life. He smiled tightly as three of them stood around in a semicircle while a fourth moved to roll over one of the booby-trapped bodies.

The plasma grenade that Kreth had rigged to explode went off in his face, killing him instantly, and his three comrades fared no better. The other eight troopers turned at the sound of the explosion, but were unable to react, as the four rebels poured fire on them from their hidden positions. It was a matter of seconds before the rest of them lay dead.

Korwin saw Tandro step out and give the signal to regroup, and he turned and ran, staying low, for the position that Tandro had designated before the ambush. He was the first to arrive, with Kierse coming next, then Kreth, and Tandro a few seconds behind her.

Korwin checked his blaster pak, and saw that it was nearly empty. Ejecting it from his rifle, he quickly replaced it with a fresh one, and pressed the small button next to the trigger to prime the blaster pak. The old one was slipped into the empty spot on his harness.

The sounds of combat could be heard coming from a few isolated areas around them, letting them know that at least a few of the others who'd run into the yard had survived the bombs. Tandro was in the process of giving more orders, when the sound of a large ship's engines from the rebel base drowned them out.

The four soldiers looked towards their base, and Korwin nearly shouted in exhultation at the sight of a transport ship landing. More ships began to drop into atmosphere, two of them landing at the base, five of them heading for the rear. Higher up in they sky, Korwin could make out the flashes of light that signified a space battle taking place. A flight of X-wings was circling high above the ground, ostensibly protecting the transports from enemy fighters.

As Korwin watched, a large flight of TIE fighters screamed down at the X-wings. The snub-fighters broke formation, and Korwin watched in awe as the powerful machines began gliding through a graceful dance of fire and death above him. He felt a tugging on his arm, and was snapped out of his reverie. Kierse was yanking on his arm, shouting, "Let's go Nalan, snap the fuck out of it!"

"Sorry!" Korwin shouted, and they sprinted after Kreth and Tandro, who were already a good distance ahead of them. Five minutes later, Korwin was running up the ramp of a transport ship, and into the cramped cargo hold. Kreth, Tandro, Kierse and he were the last to board before the pilot shut the loading ramp.

The PA crackled, and a warbling, watery Calamarian voice came over the ships comm. "Hold on tight, it's gonna be a bumpy ride!"

The ship lurched off the ground, and without any preamble, angled it's nose upward and shot off. Korwin felt himself being forced to the ground by the weight of everyone in front of him. Moments later, a loud _BOOM_ was heard, and the ship shuddered violently. Korwin grit his teeth, and pushed hard with his arms, trying to get the pile of bodies off of him. One by one, the soldiers righted themselves, though none were foolish enough to try and stand up.

The ship was swerving violently back and forth, and Korwin felt himself lucky to have not eaten yet, as he watched several other troops lose their last meals. When the smell hit his nose, he groaned inwardly. It was gonna be a long ride.

* * *

Korwin reclined back in his chair, his eyes studying Laina as he waited for her next question.

"And that's when the Imperial navy broke through on the other hyperspace route?"

"Yes. That's when they attacked Yavin the second time."

"So they evacuated you from Gnazt..."

"To fight in the second Battle of Yavin. It wasn't so much a pivotal battle, as it was a stalling operation. We knew we were going to lose that one, insofar as casualties and all that went, there was no question of that. The combat forces were put in the field to give the Alliance High Command time to evacuate.

The Imps had walkers, speeder troops, a regiment ofelites, andtwo divisions of ImperialRegulars down on the ground. I don't know what they had in the air, there was nothing I could do about that."

"When you say Imperial Regulars, you mean run of the mill stormtroopers, correct?"

"Yes."

"Were the Imperials there yet when you arrived on Yavin IV?"

"No, we got there about three hours before they did."

"Not much time to prepare, is it?"

"Not much at all." Korwin replied.

Taking a deep breath, Laina said, "Well, I think we've had a very productive second day. Let's call it a wrap for today, and reconvene tomorrow."

Korwin nodded his head. "Can do. See you tomorrow."


	6. Soldier 05

"Good morning Mr. Nalan. Ready to pick up where we left off?" Laina asked with a smile on her face as Korwin sat down in his chair.

Korwin nodded his head and said, "Before we start though, let me show you something." He reached inside the pocket of his soft, Corellian leather vest, and pulled out a small holoframe. He activated it, and handed it over.

Laina looked at the frame to see three beautiful young girls with dark brown hair and a dark olive complexion, and to the left of them, two little boys, and a little girl with white skin, and sandy blond hair. The oldest, one of the darker girls, appeared to be around twelve or thirteen, and the youngest, one of the boys, about three.

"Those are my grandkids." Korwin said with a proud grin. "The ones on the left are my daughter's. She married a Corellian. He gave me this vest." Korwin thumbed the leather appreciatively. "The girls on the right are my son's. His wife is Coruscanti."

"They're lovely." Laina said sincerely, a smile on her face, as she handed it back.

"Thank you." Korwin pocketed the frame after turning it off, and said, "So, Yavin IV then. We touched down on Yavin, and I was never happier to get off a transport. I'd end up in pukey holds again, but that first was awful..."

* * *

The sickly sweet stench of vomit filled the hold, suffocating the cramped troops within. Korwin felt the gentle bump as the ship touched down on the surface of the jungle moon, and waited anxiously for the ramp to lower. He had managed to avoid getting anyone else's puke on himself, but the smell of the stuff was choking him. There must have been gallons of the stuff washing about the floor, and soaking into peoples uniforms.

He looked over at poor Kreth, whose chin was nearly resting on her chest. She'd been okay at first, but when a large Shistavenen sitting next to her had opened his canine maw and spewed the contents of his breakfast all over her chest during the last moments of the blockade run, she'd lost it.

She'd been dry-heaving for two hours, ever since her stomach had run out of bile to force up.Tandro and Kierse were doing fine, as Korwin was, but they still couldn't wait to get off the ship.

The ramp hissed down, and the sight of the temple green slowly came into view. Korwin rushed down as fast as he could, and breathed deeply of the sweet, fresh jungle air, tainted somewhat as it was by snub-fighter fuel and the myriad smells of a large military force. He was beginning to get light-headed from his state of ecstatic hyper-ventilation, when he heard, "Nalan, what the hell are you doing?"

Captain Borlin stood not ten feet from him, on the short green grass of the temple green. "Pull your damn self together and follow me. Kreth, Tandro, Kierse, you too." The Captain turned and strode off towards the temple. The four exhausted soldiers followed. They bypassed the temple entrance completely, and walked around the side of the ancient structure.

There, gathered on the grass, waswhat was leftof Krayt Company. There weren't many, maybetwo-thirds what they'd had on Gnazt. Korwin and his friends made their way gratefully over to the surviving members of Hurstran squad. There weren't many of them. The cousins, Cluthlth'lu and Zgondli were missing, as was Ekba Ebelweev. They were presumed to have been killed in the bombardment, on Gnazt. Korwin knew he should have felt sad, but he was more numb at this point than anything else.

The diminishedunit sat in companionable silence for almost an hour before Captain Borlin again approached the company. He stopped and stood in front of his assembled troops. "It is currently 0931. In two to three hours, the Imperial fleet is going to arrive in the skies above Yavin IV. They are already in system. They intend to come down here, overwhelm us, and take our high command." His voice was beginning to rise in intensity, and his fists were clenched now. "Our job," he fairly shouted, "is to make sure that does not happen!"

He began pacing back and forth, slowly. "When they come, they'll land their ground forces in the jungle, in blasted out clearings. Our part of this mission, as infantry, is to go out and slow them down enough for the members of High Command to get out of here. After that, we'll make our own expeditious retreat."

He stopped pacing, his face and voice softening now, and said, "I want to see all of you on the transports off this rock, but we all know that won't happen. When we go into the field, we go in as a company, together. We stay together, we fight together, and we die together." His face hardened slightly again, and his voice once again took on a steel undertone. "And when we hear the alarms go off for the second time, we'll run like hell together! Got it! No fucking heroes!" He then leveled a piercing glare at Korwin, Kreth, Tandro and Kierse in turn. "Heroes don't come home." He took a deep breath, and assumed an appearance of peace. "As I said, second alarm is to retreat. First is to fight. Quartermaster's division will be bringing by ammo, grenades, whatever you need. Stock up. It's gonna be ugly."

Korwin watched as the Captain began to move through the troops, talking to them, joking with them. He didn't have to stop and talk to the four of them. He already had. Korwin sat in silence, waiting for the supply guys to come by. When they did, he pulled out eight grenades, the most he could fit on his harness. Four plasmas, two frags, two concussions. He still had three full blaster paks on his harness, so he dropped the depleted pak and replaced it with a full one. He grabbed one more, and used tape to attach it upside down to the pak currently in his rifle. That way he could reload once without having to go to his harness.

As they finished re-arming themselves, a warm, gentle rain began to fall from a sky only partly cloudy. Korwin saw a rainbow spring up over the jungle, and smiled in appreciation. These moments of relative peace were rare. Beauty like that was even rarer these days.

His paint job was still good, but he touched it up a bit anyway, and his companions did likewise. A check of his taped equipment revealed that his primitive dampening method was still soundly in place. A few minutes later, some more people from the Quartermaster's Division came by with small medkits, allowing only one per soldier. Korwin tucked his inside his harness. After that, there was nothing to do but wait.

To pass the time, they did what many soldiers did during downtime. They talked about what they would do when they got home. "I'm a chef, actually." Said Tandro with a bashful grin. "My father owns a restaurant on Telos. I'm planning on working there for starters, then eventually, maybe, opening my own place."

"No shit, a chef?" Korwin asked. "Damn, who'da thunk it?"

Kierse snorted, "That's nothin' man. Back on Corellia, before I joined the Alliance, I was studying to be a high school teacher."

His three comrades stared at him in disbelief. "What? It's true."

Kreth shook her head, chuckling, and said, "Well, I've got you all beat. When I get back to Dantooine, I'll probably get married and end up a farmwife with like, ten kids or something." She huffed in mock indignation as her three friends burst out laughing.

"Damn Kreth, it's hard to picture you as a mother." Said Korwin as his laughing subsided. The other three went silent.

"That's pretty fucked up Nalan." Said Kreth, her eyes narrowed with genuine anger.

Realizing that he'd screwed up big time, Korwin ducked his head contritely. "Shit, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to sound like that. It's just...the fighting and all...you know."

Kreth held the expression a moment longer before it faded. "Yeah, I know. It's okay." She patted him on the knee. "So, what are you doing when you get home?"

Korwin looked up quickly, and then back down, mumbling something unintelligible under his breath. "What was that, Nalan? Couldn't quite hear you." said Tandro.

"I said I can't go back." Snapped Korwin.

"Why the hell not?" Asked Kierse, confused.

"I don't want to talk about it."

Tandro leaned back on his arms and drawled, "Come on Nalan. We're not gonna hold anything against you."

Kreth and Kierse seconded his statement, and Korwin sighed deeply. Here goes, he thought. "I didn't volunteer for this like you all did." He started.

Kierse interrupted him. "But there's no draft."

"I didn't say I was drafted, I said I didn't fucking volunteer." He snapped back. "Now if you want me to tell you, shut the fuck up and let me talk." He looked between his three friends to see if any were going to speak up. No one did, so he continued. "I used to deal drugs back home. I did it to help my mom pay rent, and to help her get clothes and what not for my little brother and sister.

"Me and a buddy of mine ran into some local law enforcement, literally, when we were going to my house one day. Cops in my neighborhood aren't very nice to us kids, especially the pushers, and they know who we are. They have files on all of us. Anyway, my friend runs into one of these cops on accident, and these two guys started trying to chase us down. My friend knocked one out with a rock and the other one was going to shoot him, so..." He stopped.

His friends waited for him to continue, and when he didn't, Kreth said, "So?"

"I shot him in the head." Korwin said, and, pointing to his blaster pistol, added, "With this blaster." He paused for a moment and said, "The Twilek that I used to buy my brother and sister their school shoes from was some kind of secret recruiter for the rebels, or something. He found out what happened and said he knew a way to get me off-planet fast. This was it. Plus, he's helping my family out."

There was a moment of almost-stunned silence amongst his comrades, before Kierse broke the ice by pointing to Korwin's blaster pistol, and saying, "I didn't think that thing was standard issue."

"You're cool then? You don't think I'm some kind of fucked up criminal?""

Kreth shook her head slowly, still absorbing the information. She said, "Oh no, you are a criminal. But, you've been shooting people to save _our_ asses for months now, so I can't be too judgemental." She smiled.

Tandro said, "A couple years ago, I'd have thought it was wrong...but now, I just don't care. You're still Korwin Nalan to me."

Kierse grinned and said, "Besides, I can think of a few times we'd all have been dead if you hadn't been there. Personally, and I know this might sound selfish, but...I'm glad you shot him."

There was another moment of awkward silence, followed by another round of laughter. When it subsided, they continued talking, but of nothing of great importance. The further they stayed from more difficult subjects, like home, and life before the war, the more positive the mind-state they'd be in when they went into combat.

Korwin felt more at ease with the other three than he'd ever felt. He knew that when the shit hit the fan, everything would be just fine.

* * *

"And was it?" Laina asked pointedly.

"Fine? No." Korwin laughed a bit, before saying, "Not at all, not at all." He cleared his throat, and then took a sip of his water. After setting his glass down, he said, "The Imps landed out in the jungle, as expected, and their walkers had some trouble maneuvering around in the jungle, which was good. But they just had so many more troops than we did; it was like every time I killed one Imp, five more would pop up right where he fell."

"How long did the fighting go on before they sounded the signal to retreat and evacuate?"

"Oh, probably about two hours. It was odd though. It came in bursts, it wasn't constant. We'd fight for ten minutes or so, rifles blazing away, red bolts flying around, grenades exploding. Then everything would just stop. Someone on one side or the other would call a cease-fire, and that side would retreat, regroup, and attack someone else."

"That must have made for very confusing conditions."

"With the jungle terrain, it made it very tough. The worst of it came late though. It was the last burst of combat before they sounded the second alarm. My company was walking along a streambed, heading slowly back towards the temple. We were maybe three-quarters of a mile deep in the jungle. I was starting to get pretty twitchy, and so was Kreth. We both had a feeling that if we kept going on the streambed, we were going to get ambushed."

"So what did you do?"

"We talked to the Captain." He said, his dark face lighting up in a grin.

* * *

"Captain, we're scouting ahead." Said Tandro firmly to Captain Borlin.

"Aren't you supposed to request permission first...Sergeant?" Borlin asked darkly.

"Sir, Nalan and Kreth both have a bad feeling about this, and when they get bad feelings, I listen." Tandro looked imploringly at his commanding officer. "Sir, I trust them. They haven't let me down yet."

The captain held his eyes for a moment, his gaze steely, before subsiding with a sigh. "Alright Sgt. But don't fuck me over on this."

"Hell Cpt., you used to be a recon guy. You should appreciate this."

"Yeah, well pardon me for getting cautious in my old age." Borlin gave a nod upstream, and said, "Go on, get."

Korwin grinned as Tandro turned around and gave the silent signal to move out. Kreth took point, with Tandro, Korwin and Kierse behind. The walked out of the streambed, and melted into the dense jungle foliage that surrounded the riverbed. They stopped momentarily, and Tandro whispered, "Wait for my command to fire, no matter what the size of the enemy force. We may not be able to see all of them through all the foliage, so don't get trigger-happy. Got it?"

They all nodded, and he said, "We go silent from here on out. Kreth, on point."

Kreth lead them off upstream, just off the banks of the wide stream. They'd been scouting for no more than five minutes when Kreth held up her hand. The small unit stopped, and everyone stayed still, as Kreth slowly pointed out a stormtrooper on the right side of the streambed. Tandro pointed at Korwin and then pointed at the stormtrooper. Using his index and middle finger, he pointed at his eyes. Korwin nodded and moved off into the brush, as Tandro ordered Kreth to check out the other side.

Korwin maneuvered carefully away from the stream, making sure to stay silent. When he was close to fifty feet away, he began creeping stealthily toward the rear of the stormtrooper's position. He came to the base of a great tree and slowly peeked around it. He counted seven on the ground, hiding behind trees at the edge of the stream. There were three more in the branches of large masai tree that extended over the stream.

He backed away carefully, and made his way back to the point he'd left the others. Kreth arrived a moment later and held up ten fingers. Korwin did the same. Not seeing Tandro or Kierse, they knew they'd gone back to warn the others. The started off through the jungle, and came back onto the stream next to the Captain. He started slightly when they appeared, and said, "Force you're good at that. Might have to see about making it permanent if this works out. What do you have?"

Tandro looked at his troops and said, "Well, how many?"

Korwin said, "I counted ten on my side. Seven on the ground, three up top, on branches overhanging the stream."

Kreth said, "Ten on my side also, all on the ground. Two armed with rocket launchers."

Borlin took all of the info in and said, "Okay, Nalan, you and Kierse take Kozan and Jenrol, and set up for ambush on your group." He turned to Tandro and said, "You and Kreth take Hoozt and...who else is in your squad?"

Tandro looked around and realized that was everyone. Sadly, he said, "That's it sir. That's all of them."

"Shit." He turned to a Bothan female, and said, "Sgt. Naldj'a, go with Tandro. Tandro, same thing as Nalan." Addressing both groups now, he said, "Wait until you can hear us approaching. Timing is critical. If you shoot too early, they might kill you."

Korwin scoffed inwardly. With the Imps caught unawares, they were as good as dead.

"If you shoot too late," Borlin continued, "they'll kill us." He looked over each of the eight troops he was sending off. "Don't fuck up. Move out."

As Korwin, Kierse, Jenrol and Kozan crept into the thick underbrush that grew on the jungle floor, Kierse muttered the last words he was allowed. "No fucking pressure. Asshole."

They made their way to the point that Korwin had last left. The Imps were in the same positions, waiting patiently for the rebels to come walking brazenly up the streambed. Korwin pointed at Jenrol, and at stocky, brown-haired Kozan. He pointed to two different trees, and they made their way over. He pointed to his grenades, and then over to the Imps on the ground. They both nodded and moved off. He looked at Kierse, and pointed at the three snipers hanging over the stream. Kierse grinned and nodded his head, and then crept off to find his own place to shoot from.

All was still for the next few minutes, as the small rebel unit waited for the tell-tale sounds of an infantry company slogging through the water. When they came, Korwin waved his arm toward the Imps. Kozan and Jenrol lobbed their grenades, and Korwin didn't wait for them to hit before he drew a bead on the first sniper, the highest in the tree, and fired. His shot hit the Imp in the arm, but the man lost his balance and fell from the tree, striking several thick branches on the way down. He lay face down in the stream, unmoving. The second sniper down was shot in the faceplate by Kierse, just as the grenades exploded.

Korwin could hear the sounds of combat from the other side of the river as well, and he began pouring fire on the Imps who'd survived the grenades. He fired three bolts into one Imp's chest, and watched as the man fell backward, out of hiding and into the stream. Another fell as Kierse drilled several bolts into his torso and faceplate. Kozan and Jenrol kept up a steady stream of fire as well, and within thirty seconds of the first shot being fired, there was silence on both sides of the stream. Korwin stood from his hiding place and called, "All clear!"

He waited until he heard the same from the other side, before walking out of the jungle and into the stream, just as the rest of the company charged up.

The Captain looked at the dead stormtroopers that were visible, as Kreth, Tandro, and the two that had been with them stepped out of the foliage. "Well sithspit, I guess you were right." At that moment, the alarms sounded from the temple. "Sithspit! Back to the temple! Time to get the hell out of here!"

Borlin charged off upstream, and Korwin had no choice but to follow. He sure as hell didn't want to get left behind. He ran as fast as he could, without outpacing the rest of the troops, and kept as close a watch as he could on the jungle that was rushing past them on both sides.

They had run several hundred yards, when he nearly tripped and fell, as a young Twilek woman in front of him fell to the ground with a smoking hole in her head. Korwin shouted, "Sniper!" and then the jungle exploded into chaos.

Blaster bolts poured in on the company, and Korwin watched as Kozan, who'd gone with him on the ambush, fell with two bolts through his chest. Borlin took a shot in the thigh, but kept running as though he didn't feel it. Tandro was up ahead of him, his head tucked, shoulders down, running as hard as he could, and Kreth and Kierse were just ahead of Tandro, both running and shooting at the same time.

Korwin couldn't see the enemy, and wasn't going to stop to look for him, so he settled for sprinting full speed through the shallow water, and spraying the jungle with his blaster rifle as he went. He heard someone fall behind him, and turned for a moment to look. At that moment, an explosion sounded ahead of him, and he was violently tripped by a falling body. He became tangled with the fallen soldier, and fell face-first into the now bloody, mucky water.

He came to rest with his face in the water, and his legs tangled around the other soldier's legs. He turned to untangle himself, and swore loudly as he saw that he had been tripped up byTandro. The right side of his body wasa ruin of mangled flesh and strips of skin hanging from shattered bone. Only his face was untouched.

He was quite dead, and Korwin thought briefly of a small restaurant on Telos that would never open. Then he pushed the thought away, and said, "See you later Tandro." He stared for a moment longer at the corpse of his friend and then on impulse, said, "I'll go eat at your dad's place sometime."

He felt a hand on his shoulder, and whirled around, his rifle coming to his shoulder. "Shit Nalan, relax, it's me!" It was Kierse, his head bloody, and his face pale. "Kreth's gone ahead, man, and we need to go too." He looked at Tandro, and then back at Korwin. "You aren't doing him any favors here. Let's fucking go!"

Korwin reacted to that, and took off for the temple at a run. He didn't bother shooting anymore. Instead, he concentrated on running, jumping over the bodies of dead rebels as he made a desperate dash for the transport ships that he knew were waiting just beyond the jungle's edge. He broke out of the jungle and turned off the stream and quickened his pace when he saw the last two transport ships, packed.

"Run Kierse!" He shouted, and they cleared the final yards to the transport just as stormtroopers began pouring out of the jungle. Korwin turned and watched the ramp close, and then leaned his back against it. He slid down to a sitting position, and closed his eyes. He saw Tandro again, lying dead in the stream. There had been no dramatic dying scene like in the holodramas, where the hero and his dying comrade have a last minute heart to heart. He was just dead. Torn apart by a frag grenade. In the wrong place, at the wrong time.

The tears came easily, and Korwin didn't notice when Kreth and Kierse sat down beside him; barely registered the jolting and shuddering of the ship as it ran the Imperial blockade. It was too much right now. He needed to rest.

* * *

"And that's what I did. I rested. I just sort of...shut down for a while, I guess you could say. Like hitting the reset button."

"How long did that last?"

"No idea. I just remember the transport ship docking with the cruiser. I'd never been on a Mon Cal cruiser, so that kinda woke me up, you know?"

"I take it you were impressed then?"

"Oh yes, young lady. Mighty impressed."

"What did you do there?"

"We regrouped, spent a couple weeks getting cool. We were out in the middle of nowhere, so it was pretty safe. I hadn't spent two weeks not fighting without being doped up on painkillers, so it was okay. But we still trained every day, all day. So it was still exhausting."

"And where did you go from there?" Laina asked.

Korwin shivered a bit, and said, "Well, we went to Hoth."

"Hoth?"

"Hoth. The whole of the Alliance Navy, Army, Marines, the High Command, everybody. We were there for three weeks before I got a break. And it wasn't the kind I was expecting."

* * *

Korwin sat with Kreth, and Kierse, eating ration bars, and drinking caf. They were all bundled up in warm overcoats over their jumpsuits, but it was miserably cold nonetheless. "This is shit." He muttered.

Kreth nodded her head in agreement, and said, "I took a piss this morning, and I swear it froze before it hit the water."

Kierse snickered through chattering teeth, and said, "That's impressive, considering it doesn't have more than six inches to go."

Korwin stood up and said, "I'm gonna take a walk. I"m gonna freeze to death if I don't."

Neither of his friends made a move to follow, so he said, "See you later then."

"Yeah, see you." said Kierse. "I'm fine right where I am. You know they say you feel warm when you freeze to death. Almost euphoric. Better than getting gutshot."

"Man don't say shit like that." Korwin said. "I'll see you guys at chow. Maybe they'll have something edible tonight."

He turned and walked away, down a narrow metal hallway. They hadn't gotten the heating up to snuff yet, so while the place was bearable with several layers of clothing on, and certainly warmer than outside, it was still colder than was reasonable. Korwin suppressed a shiver from the cold, and then suppressed a groan as he saw the Captain approaching.

He braced himself for the bad news he was sure was to come, when he got the biggest shocker of his short military career. "Nalan, I've got a transport heading to Naboo in twenty minutes. You want on, you got it. I think you need a week off."

Korwin was floored. That was the last thing he ever expected to hear. "You're serious? You're not fucking with me?"

"Not fucking with you."

"What about Kreth, and..."

"Your playmates will still be here when you get back. We're not going anywhere for a while. Ten seconds." Borlin looked at his wrist chrono and began counting down. "Nine, eight, seven, six..."

"Okay, I'll go."

"Got any civilian clothes?"

"Just what I showed up to basic in." Korwin replied.

"Wear em. Here, take this." He handed Korwin a credit chip. "There's a thousand on here. Enough for a couple new outfits, and a weeks worth of food and a room at a good hotel. There's a place called The Water Garden that's nice. Go there."

"Yes sir." Korwin said dumbly, scarcely believing his good fortune.

"Hurry up and get to the hangar."

"Yes sir." Korwin turned and sprinted back to the small room he shared with his two friends. They looked up at him as he ran through the door, grinning like an idiot. "I got a week's leave on Naboo, and I leave in twenty!"

"What!" Shouted Kierse. "Since when?"

"Since Borlin came up to me in the hall and offered. Don't worry, he says we'll be here a while, and I'll only be gone a week."

Kierse started to complain again, but Kreth cut him off. "Have a good time Nalan. We'll hold down the fort until you get back."

Korwin smiled gratefully. "Thanks Kreth." He turned to his skinny, red-headed friend. "Enjoy Hoth, sir." He then quickly changed into the clothes he'd been wearing the day he'd left home. A sudden wave of nostalgia overcame him, and he stood stock still for a moment, his emotions in turmoil. Then he heard Kierse's voice.

"Look, dick, if you're gonna bail on us, you better do it quick. You're gonna miss your ship."

Korwin said, "Yeah, right. Listen, I'll see you guys in a week." He put on his gun belt, and holstered his pistol. "Take care."

He turned and walked out of the room, the credit chip in his pocket, wearing civilian clothes for the first time in almost three months. It was a little surreal.

As he boarded his ship, a small Nubian freighter, he looked over his shoulder. There was no one there, and for some reason, that satisfied him. They knew he'd be back.


	7. Soldier 06

"I slept through the hyperspace journey to Naboo, and I tell you what, I needed it. I woke up about a half-hour before we entered the atmosphere."

"It must have been nice to know that you were going to be spending a week in a place that wasn't a war-zone." Laina commented.

Korwin smirked. "It was actually very intimidating to me."

"Intimidating?" Laina asked, baffled by his response. "How so?"

"When I stepped off the ship, and saw the city of Theed, I was blown away. The place was absolutely stunning. It was very easy for me to tell that this was a predominantly wealthy city, and that it's citizens were well taken care of." He smiled, and looked down at his hands in his lap. When he looked back up, he said, "It was so peaceful, so quiet. There were very few speeders jetting around, mostly taxi's. It was just elegant, beautiful people walking along. Everyone's clothes were so nice, and they spoke so intelligently, so eloquently. I felt very out of place there."

"Was it a negative experience then?"

"Oh no. I learned pretty quick that the people of Naboo are good folks. They didn't care if my clothes were a little shabby, or if I didn't have the best vocabulary. Everyone I met during my leave was good to me." He chuckled softly then, and said, "Plus, that's where I met my wife."

* * *

Korwin walked slowly through the peaceful, cobblestone streets of Theed. The architecture in this city was stunning, and there were flower boxes and gardens adorning every home and building. There was water everywhere, he noticed, like on his own home planet. There were fountains, ponds, waterfalls, and even small, carefully engineered outdoor lakes with fish and birds, and plants. Everything was surrounded by the lovely marble stonework that Theed was famous for.

People were everywhere, walking the streets, eating at outdoor cafes, and going about their daily business. Korwin tried to take it all in, but found himself feeling incredibly isolated and jumpy. All he could see was a mass of unfamiliar faces, and no back-up if the shit hit the fan. He didn't even have his rifle. After spending two months going everywhere outside of camp with it, being without it made him feel...naked, for lack of a better term.

He had been wandering for the last hour or so, admiring the breathtaking scenery that the city had to offer, after having been told where to find The Water Gardens Inn. It wasn't that he was lost. He'd actually walked by the place, before deciding not to stop in just yet. Now, with paranoia setting in, he decided that perhaps it would be best to just get a room, and spend the rest of the day around the inn.

Backtracking on his path until he found the inn, he surveyed the area for a moment. It was a wide-faced one-story building that sat on the western side of a large square about a mile from the palace. In the center of the square was a great fountain with a pool around it. The inn itself had a set of large wooden doors that were currently wide open. There was a marble awning that was supported by marble pillars. In front of the entrance was a lovely garden, filled with flowers of more colors than Korwin knew existed. There were fountains here and there, and small, round tables with chairs, where he could see guests, and patrons of the café sitting and taking meals.

He walked across the broad stone path that led through the center of the garden, and into the inn. The interior was well lit, and soft music was being played by a trio of alien musicians. The first room was a large common room, with several tables and comfortable looking chairs, and a long, elegant looking bar made of some kind of polished wood. There were padded stools with backrests along the length of the bar, and a handsome human man stood behind it, serving patrons drinks.

Korwin could see that at the back of the room was another set of double doors, which led to what looked like more gardens and fountains. He saw no desks, and the only other employees he saw besides the bartender were four pretty young women in tasteful, elegant dresses of light blue, serving drinks and food to the customers at tables.

He walked over to the bar and waited for the bartender to get to him. It didn't take long, and the man said, "What can I get for you?"

Korwin said, "I heard you had rooms available."

The man smiled and leaned on the bar. "We do sir. How long will you be looking to stay for?"

"A week." Korwin replied.

The man gave a quick nod, and said, "Just a moment." He walked to the end of the bar and pulled a datapad from underneath. Coming back, he said, "Your name?"

"Korwin Nalan."

"Okay, that will be fifty credits a night, and you can pay day-by-day, or all at once."

Korwin pulled his credit chip out and handed it to the man. "Just take it all now. Easier that way."

The man nodded his head and said, "Okay." He took the credit chip from Korwin and ran it through a slot on the datapad. He punched in the total price, and then handed the chip back. The purchase will appear on your account. Anything else for now?"

Korwin shook his head. "No, that's all."

"Very well then. Here's your passcode. Use this to code to familiarize the security panel outside the door with your thumbprint. That way you can't lose your key." He handed Korwin a small slip of paper with a six digit number. "Once it's keyed, go ahead and put the paper in the trash. You won't need it anymore. Rooms are through the back doors. Yours is number nine, on the right."

"Thanks." Korwin said, as he turned and left the common room. When he stepped out the back doors, he had to stop for just a moment, and admire the gardens that lay before him. Eight majestic fountains dotted the gardens, and small stone pathways led through a veritable field of flowers and greenery.

Korwin turned right, and walked along the covered walkway that skirted the gardens, until he came to room number nine. He dialed in the code on the security panel, and then pressed his thumb against the sensor, as prompted. It scanned his thumb twice, and then beeped. A green light came on, and the door hissed open.

Korwin stepped inside a large room. There was a bed on the wall to his far right, with deep white sheets and pillowcases, and a deep blue comforter. There was a holovid screen across from the bed, and a small round table, with two plush chairs next to it. A comm unit sat next to the bed, and a small dresser sat underneath the holovid screen.

Korwin went and laid down on the bed. A short rest would be good for his nerves, he decided. Closing his eyes, he fell asleep.

* * *

When Korwin awoke, he felt refreshed, and almost relaxed. He decided to take another look at the city, now that he was more rested. Stepping out of his room, he bypassed the gardens to go straight into the inn. It was dark outside now, and the common room was filled with patrons. He walked past all of them, giving none of them so much as a second glance on his way out the front.

The garden patio out front was similarly busy, with people at each table. Korwin had just stepped out into the garden, when a young woman at a table next to the path stood suddenly, not watching where she was going. She turned and ran face-first into Korwin's chest, and spilled the drink she was holding down his shirt. She quickly backed away, her lightly tanned cheeks turning a most becoming shade of pink as she said, "Oh, I'm so sorry sir! I didn't know you were there, I wasn't paying attention, and I just...I'm sorry!"

She bit her lip, and looked at him, and he couldn't help but notice that she was quite attractive. She was a small woman, petite, with light, reddish-brown hair, and large green eyes. Her figure, though slender, held enough curve to be more than a little enticing. Her skin was smooth and unblemished, and her face was almost like a doll's. She looked to be maybe a little older than Korwin.

Korwin smiled minutely, and said, "It's no problem. Don't worry about." And then he pushed past her, beautiful though she was, intending to go on his walk, and find some quiet place outside to be alone.

"Wait!" Came the young woman's voice from behind him. He sighed and turned around.

"What?"

She bit her lip again, and still blushing, said, "Let me buy you a drink or something." When he raised an eyebrow, she quickly added, "To make up for ruining your shirt and all."

"No, that's okay." Korwin said. He noticed that the two other women she was with were silently whispering to each other, while looking back and forth between their friend and him. "I've, uh, got things to do."

"Well it's pretty late, and nothing's really open, so, what could you be doing?" She challenged, her voice a little shaky. She appeared to be somewhat nervous, and she looked at her two friends. They just smiled at her encouragingly. "Come on, just one drink. To say sorry."

"Alright, one drink." Korwin walked over to their table and sat down. The young woman sat down next to him.

"I'm Elise, and these are my friends Lisandra," She gestured to a pretty blonde, "and Jese."

"I'm Korwin." He said. They sat in silence after that, waiting for a waitress to get their order. When they finally ordered, Lisandra looked at him and said, "So, you don't sound like you're from Naboo. Or look it. Where are you from?"

"Juno IV. It's on the outer rim." He replied.

Jese said, "I've never heard of it."

"Me either." Said Lisandra.

"I have." Elise said.

Korwin looked at her, his eyebrow raised in surprise. "How?"

"My grandfather and his brother were born there. They came to Naboo when they were still in school." She seemed a bit less nervous now, and Korwin wondered if perhaps it had been because she'd spilled her drink on him that she'd acted so flustered. "I've never been there myself, but I've heard that Celka City is beautiful."

"That's where I'm from. Celka City. But I'm from Tides. It's not so beautiful there. Your grandpa must be from Mountainside."

"Yeah, he is."

"Wealthy then?"

"How'd you know?" She asked with a smile.

"Because that's where the rich people live."

She nodded her head, his statement making sense. "So what about Tides then?"

He shrugged and took a drink from his Corellian whiskey. "That's where the poor people live."

"Oh." She said, a little more somber now. Her two friends looked at the two of them, and then stood up from the table.

Lisandra bent down and kissed her friend on the cheek. "We'll see you tomorrow Eli, we've got to be going." Jese followed suit, and said her goodbyes.

As they left, Jese smiled at Korwin, and said, "Goodnight Korwin. It was lovely to meet you." She and Lisandra began laughing as they walked into the square.

"That was odd." Said Elise, looking after her two friends. Then, turning her attention back to Korwin, she asked, "So, if you're so poor, how did you get here?"

Korwin took a long drink from his whiskey to buy time. When he set the glass, now half empty, down on the table, he replied, "I'm here on a work retreat." He grinned, pleased with himself for the answer he'd come up with.

"Must be a nice job to have perks like that." She said.

"I could think of plenty of things I'd rather be doing."

"Well, what do you do?" She asked, innocently enough.

The problem was, the answer was anything but innocent. He couldn't very well tell her he was an infantryman in the Alliance Army. He wracked his brain for a response, and the first thing he came up with was, "I'm in real estate." _Real estate?_ He thought to himself. _Shit that sounds stupid._

She smiled prettily, and said, "Real estate huh? What do you do exactly?"

"Well, uh..." His brain was running a mile a minute trying to formulate a suitable response to that question, and he was sure he had a stupid look on his face. His answer, when it finally came, sounded almost reasonable to his ears. "I take a team of associates, and we go and look at a piece of real estate property that's up for sale. We record information on it, and take it to our bosses, who decide if it's worth picking up. If it is, my associates and I go and purchase it."

"How do you make a profit if all you do is buy?" She asked pointedly.

"Well, we don't just buy." Korwin said, thoughts of Gnazt and Yavin, Vashta, Turneen, Tandro, and the others they'd lost so far. "We sell plenty of land too. Sales have been good lately."

He took another long drink from his whiskey, and then set the glass back down. His eyes were suddenly moist, and he quickly swiped an arm across them. He sniffed once, and found that his nose was starting to run.

"Are you alright?" Asked Elise.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine." He said, and he smiled wanly.

She leaned forward, her elbows propped on the table, chin cradled in her slender, delicate hands. "How old are you, Korwin?"

"Seventeen. I'll be eighteen in four months." He said, not thinking about his response. As soon as he'd said, it though, he mentally slapped himself. What would a seventeen year old be doing in real estate. Especially an underprivileged kid like him from some backwater planet. Luckily, she say anything about it. "How about you?" He asked.

Elise said, "Twenty-one. You're a little young to be carrying a blaster, aren't you?" She asked teasingly.

"Can never be too careful." He said with a smile.

"I guess." She sipped from her drink, and said, "So, maybe I could show you around the city tomorrow."

Korwin thought about it for a moment before nodding his head and replying, "Sure. I'd like that."

She smiled, and said, "Meet you at noon?"

Korwin nodded again, and said, "Noon."

* * *

"That sounds lovely." Said Laina.

"It was, it was. That first day, going around the city with her, I think that's when I fell in love. I had never seen a place so peaceful, where everyone was so happy. And I don't think that I'd ever felt as calm, as at ease, as I did with her." He smiled wistfully as he recalled his youth. "I was seventeen years old, and I had never felt safe before. In Tides, you weren't safe in your own home, much less on the streets. And to go from that, to a war, you know, it wasn't a great thing. But on that planet, in that city, with her, I felt safe. I felt like I didn't have to watch my back every second. For the first time, you know, I wasn't on edge." He took a sip from his water, and then said, "But it was also very strange to me."

"In what way?" Asked Laina.

"Strange, in that literally forty-eight hours earlier, I'd been sitting on Hoth, waiting for orders to go into combat on some strange exotic planet, and now here I was, in new clothes that this woman had helped me pick out, in a city where almost no one but the city guards went armed, with a woman that made me feel human for the first time in a long time."

"How did she react to you?"

"She was just as quick to it as I was. We were head over heels by the end of that first day together. We ended up at the inn, in my room. And that's our business." He said with a laugh.

"Your battle scars must have been quite obvious to her. Did she ask about them?"

"She did, but I told her that my back was burned falling onto a fire as a kid, and the blaster wound from that first patrol on Gnazt became a blaster wound from a deal gone bad in Tides." He said.

"What was it like for you when you had to leave then, a week later, and go back to the war?"

"It was hard. But I told her I would come back and see her. And I did."

* * *

"I don't know when I'll be able to come back, but I promise I will." Said Korwin, standing at the bottom of the transports ramp. The crew was already inside, ready to go, they were just waiting for Korwin.

"Korwin? What do you really do?" Elise, or Eli, as he'd come to call her, asked.

He looked at her blankly, before saying, "What do you mean? I told you."

"Seventeen year olds from poor neighborhoods don't get into real estate...do they?" She asked.

Korwin smirked at that, and said, "No, they don't I guess."

"So what _do_ they do?" She asked.

Korwin cocked his head to the side, and looked at her speculatively. Coming to a decision, he asked her, "What do you think of the Empire?"

She frowned, and she said, "I hate it. I hate everything it stands for. Everyone here on Naboo does. The only reason Palpatine leaves us alone is because we don't bear arms against him, or actively aid the Rebel Alliance." She shuddered at the thought of Palpatine. "He's from here you know...the Emperor. He was a senator. Padme Nabberie replaced him after she finished her term as Queen, but she died young. Of course, I was in diapers, and you weren't even born yet." She finished.

"Thanks for the history lesson Eli." Korwin grinned.

"Why did you ask?" She queried, confused by his question.

He said, "I'm involved with the alliance."

She gasped, and her hand came to her mouth. When she'd recovered from her shock, she asked, "Do you fight?" There was an undertone of trepidation in her silky voice, and her hands went to his, clasping them tightly.

Deciding that the slight guilt of telling a lie would be better than worrying her over his possible death, he said, "No. I'm part of the quartermaster's division. I just help make sure our combat troops are properly equipped. No glory in it, but it keeps me safe." He said with what he hoped was a convincing smile.

"Oh, that's good." She said with obvious relief. "I'm grateful to the people who are fighting for the galaxy's freedom, but the thought of you dying like that." She looked down, and said, "I know we haven't known each other that long, but...I'll be waiting for you. Send me a message every now and then, if you can."

"I promise." He said, knowing it was a promise he probably couldn't keep. He leaned down and kissed her gently on the lips, and then said, "I love you. I'll see you."

"I love you too." She said, and she stood and watched as Korwin boarded the ship.

* * *

"Why did you lie to her?" Laina asked, almost sounding a little peeved, and Korwin saw her lekku moving minutely in a gesture that conveyed mild irritation.

"At the time, being young and stupid, I felt that it was a necessity born of compassion. It was also probably a bit selfish. I thought that if she knew I was fighting, she might worry too much, and I didn't want that. I also thought that if I didn't get there within a certain amount of time, she'd assume I'd died, and go off with somebody else. So I told her I was a rear-echelon supply guy."

"How was it going back to Hoth, back to your unit?"

Korwin pursed his lips for a moment, and then said, "It was good, you know? Leaving Eli on Naboo was tough, especially after being as happy, and at peace as I'd been with her those days. But at the time, no matter how much in love I was, no matter how much I wanted to go back to Naboo, find work, and be with Eli, I wanted to be on Hoth with Danna and Dilan more."

He took a sip from his water, and then said, "Those two were like a brother and sister to me. We really got close on Gnazt, and that first recon patrol we did brought us even closer. When Tandro died, that sealed the deal. We were pretty much inseparable after that. We swore that Tandro was the last of our little group to die, that the three of us were all going to make it. Dilan was going to be a teacher on Corellia, Danna was going to go back to Dantooine, raise a family and own a farm. And now I had something to look forward to also. I had Eli, I had Naboo. And I started thinking that I could bring my family over there, after the war, you know?"

"So things were starting to look good for you." Laina said, more a statement than a question.

"The future looked good yes. The distant future. But then we got our orders to ship out, and the near future didn't look so good at all."

"Where were you off to?"

"Tatooine."

"Well, why don't we tackle Tatooine tomorrow, shall we?" Laina asked.

"Sounds good to me." Korwin said. "Goodnight Laina." He said, as he stood up and headed for the door.

"Good night Mr. Nalan." Laina replied with a wave. When he'd gone, she looked at the various crew members and said, "Okay folks, lets shut down and go home."


	8. Soldier 07

So, uh, hi there. This is the author speaking. I don't know how people are liking this story, because no one is posting any reviews. Which is okay, I suppose. I'll keep writing it. But reviews are helpful.

Eli is pronounced Ellie, not Ely. And the affectionately-dubbed box, or what I tried to describe, is the same kind of transport that takes Obi-Wan and Anakin to their first duel with Dooku on Geonosis. Basically the Star Wars version of a Huey.

I should also probably put a disclaimer in here somewhere, shouldn't I. Let's see...

Here looks good. I disclaim any and all responsibility for the creation of star wars, any characters not created by me, Ewoks, and Jar Jar Binks. Thank god. I also had nothing to do with that Monica Lewinsky scandal back in the late 90's. I have much better taste than that. That was all Slobodan's fault. On with the story.

* * *

Korwin settled into his chair for another day of interviewing, and thanked the young man who brought him a glass of ice water. Laina sat across from him, her legs crossed, her expression businesslike. She held her datapad in her lap and smiled at him. "Good morning." 

"Morning." He smiled back.

Looking down at her datapad, she said, "It looks like you were just leaving Naboo."

He nodded his head. "Right. When the ship got back to Hoth, the first thing I did was get back in uniform, which was currently a white jumpsuit. I then reported to Captain Borlin and let him know that I was back." He sipped his water. "He told me that we had new orders, that we were on full alert for a pending invasion of Imperial-held Tatooine."

"But he'd told you that you'd be there for a while."

"He did, but things change. The brass had things set up on Hoth pretty well, I guess they'd been planning the move for a while. Not something they'd tell us about, of course. They decided that it would be a good idea to liberate Tatooine. It took a couple weeks for them to get everything set up, establish space superiority. We couldn't afford to lose anyone really, so that meant we couldn't be running a blockade. We'd need immediate re-supply and a steady stream of replacements. This had to be done right.

"That's because this wasn't like Gnazt, they had an entire Corps down there. A corps usually has three to five divisions. Inside the divisions are regiments, and there can be as many as six or seven. Then three to four battalions to a regiment, five to six companies to a battalion, four platoons to a company, and four squads to a platoon. A typical platoon in both the Alliance and Imperial Armies held roughly forty to forty-eight troops. You do the rest of the math."

Laina cocked her head to the side and said, "I take it you didn't like the idea."

"Oh no, I liked it fine. I didn't know anything about Tatooine, really, other than it was a desert and it was crawling with Imps. Imps didn't scare me, and the heat, well; that bothered me a bit, but I figured, it was hot on Gnazt, you know? How bad could it be?" He laughed at that, humorlessly, shaking his head.

When he subsided, he said, "Tatooine was hell. There is no other word in the Basic language that can describe that experience." He took another sip from his water, and ran a hand over his salt and pepper hair. "You see, it wasn't just the Imps...it was the Sandpeople too. And they didn't care who they attacked. They'd hit us, the Imps, other Sandpeople tribes, anybody. They just didn't give a shit." He said emphatically.

"How long were you on Tatooine?" Laina asked.

"Almost fourteen months."

* * *

The transport ship touched down on the sand a mile outside Mos Espa, three more following it. The ramps lowered, and six hundred Alliance Light Infantry stepped out onto the desert sands of Tatooine. It was dark out, and the moon was shining brightly. The stars sparkled like diamonds on the black velvet curtain of the night sky. 

Korwin Nalan admired the stark beauty from the top of the sand dune that K company was gathering on. His uniform, now a jumpsuit meant for desert camouflage, was new, and still a little stiff. They had new body armor, made of an improved plasteel and kelvorite design that was fairly flexible, despite being almost half an inch thick, and provided good protection for the torso. They'd been issued helmets made of a firmer material than the body armor, and came with visor's that would darken in the sun.

But to make things even better, they'd also been given new harnesses, with a new design that allowed for more ammo to be carried. They were designed like a vest, and were worn over the body armor. There were six pouches for blaster paks, instead of four, and they went from his left flank to his right, across his abdoment. They were down at the bottom, their bases just above the hemline of the desert camo vest.

There were still eight grenade rings, as with the last harness. The new vibroblades they'd been given were said to vibrate faster, and keep their edges longer. The sheath was still in the small of his back, but he hadn't really used it yet, so he didn't worry about it.

As it was nighttime, he raised the visor of his helmet. Kreth and Kierse stood next to him, and Jenrol was just in front. Jenrol turned to them, and said, "You know, it's kinda pretty." He smiled, a slow easy smile. Jenrol had seen just as much combat as the rest of them, but had never seemed to lose his easygoing attitude, or friendly nature. He had been irritating at first, but now, he was kind of refreshing.

"Yeah," Korwin said, "It is. A little warm for nighttime though."

Kreth whacked him gently on the arm with the butt of her blaster rifle. "It's no hotter than Gnazt at night. Can't be that bad."

Korwin didn't respond, but went back to star-gazing. "It's amazing." He said softly. "I never seen so many stars before."

"Yeah, it's nice." Said Kierse. "Corellia's nicer. We have stars there. They're usually naked, but..."

"Oh, shut the hell up Kierse." Kreth snapped. "Gammorrean."

Korwin laughed at his friends, and then heard Jenrol say, "Here comes the man."

Korwin saw Captain Borlin moving up the slope, outfitted identically to all of his troops. He said, "Alright folks, as you know from the briefing in hyperspace, we have pretty much gained air superiority here. The problem is a couple of airbases that the have Imps constructed underneath two plateaus out in the Jundland Wastes. The other problem is three settlements. Mos Espa, Mos Eisley, and Anchorhead.

To reiterate our mission, our job is to take Mos Espa with the help of D Company, R Company, M Company, and V Company. We're the lead-in, of course. The rest of them will follow behind us, including 1st and 3rd battalions, who will land roughly an hour after we do. After we finish this job, we link up with the rest of the 1st Light and keep the area clear of roving Imps while the Navy constructs an airbase for their X-wings and A-wings."

He paused, and surveyed his newly replenished company. "All you replacements, and there are a lot of you, listen to what the vets tell you. Don't get cocky because you got some good training. These guys," he gestured around at some of the veterans of Gnazt and Yavin, "have had the best training you can get, and that's in the field."

The newer troops all nodded dumbly, and looked around at those that they knew were veterans. They all acted a bit like kids with hero worship around the vets. Korwin was a novelty though. He was the youngest of the company by two years, and the youngest replacement was twenty. The new troops still treated him a bit like a kid sometimes, but the older ones new better. He didn't complain about it. They'd know who was all grown up after tonight. Those that lived.

Borlin looked his troops over and said, "All right, move out!" The company spread out, each soldier about ten feet from another, in a large, loose formation, and began marching across the dunes towards Mos Espa. Korwin, near the front of the company, could already see the lights. It wouldn't be more than twenty-five minutes before they were there.

Korwin heard someone breathing rapidly behind him, and turned to look. It was one of the replacements, a human woman of twenty-three who had just finished her training at a small facility on her home planet of Chandrila. He couldn't remember her name though. Korwin dropped back a few paces, and looked at her, smiling, and said, "You okay there? You look a little nervous."

She looked over at him, and forced a smile onto her face. "I'm fine, just a little warm, that's all."

He smirked, and looked at her out of the corner of his eye, saying, "It'll get hotter tomorrow morning. What's your name again?" Most of the others were going out of their way to remain aloof from the replacements, but Korwin didn't see how that was going to do anyone any good.

"Melara, Private Jenna Melara." She said.

"Just stick close to us," He said, pointing out Kierse, Kreth, and Jenrol. "Pay attention and listen to what we say, and you'll be just fine." He gave her a friendly pat on the shoulder and walked back up to his position.

It was almost twenty minutes later, when Korwin began getting that feeling. Aerial recon had showed no artillery or heavy turbolasers. That didn't mean the rancor didn't have teeth. It was just missing a few. He could now see, in detail, the white-washed adobe houses. Most of them had no lights on, but Korwin knew that meant nothing. The Imps were reportedly occupying the houses. Luckily, according to intel, the residents had escaped the city when they'd heard rumors of invasion.

Kreth, who was on point, raised up her hand, and lowered to a crouch. Everyone else followed suit, and the Alliance force reached the edge of the town. As of yet, there had been no shots fired, and there were no strange noises. Kreth crept into the street, keeping herself low, and staying next to the building. Korwin followed her, his eyes sweeping left and right. Korwin watched as the rest of the company began to file into the street, staying along the sides, next to the building.

He turned his attention to Kreth again, and saw that she had stopped yet again. She was peering into the darkness of a covered alleyway across the street, when a shot rang out from the rooftop just above it. The blaster bolt screamed into the wall right next to Kreth's head, and she raised her rifle and returned fire at the stormtrooper that was trying to hide there.

She missed, and he ducked beneath the edge of the roof. Doors began to open down the street, and Korwin could see white armor running out of the darkness of the alley. He raised his rifle and fired a single shot into the first Imp's faceplate, sending him crashing to the ground, then ran for the cover of some toppled crates some twenty feet down the way. Arriving at the crates, he dove behind them, just as a group of stormtroopers sighted him and began firing. The rest of the company tried to find cover in the street as well, returning fire all the while.

Kierse slid to the ground next to Korwin, and slid a fresh blaster pak into his rifle. Priming it, he raised himself onto his knees and fired a few shots at the stormtroopers coming from the houses. Korwin peered around the crates at the mouth of the alley, and saw two Imps exiting the alley and trying to find cover. He sprayed the area, trying to frighten them.

One of the Imps kept running, but the other dropped to the ground, trying to become as flat as possible. Korwin took aim on the one still running, and, leading him just a bit, squeezed of a burst. Two shots hit him under his right shoulder, and he fell to the ground, slowly writhing about.

Turning his attention to the other, he saw that he was hurriedly getting to his feet and trying to find cover. The Imp blasted a few wild potshots in Korwin's direction, but didn't come close, and Korwin vaped him before he'd taken one step. Seeing that several other troops, including Kreth had the situation in the alley well in hand, Korwin nudged Kierse to get his attention. He pointed at the rooftops, and Kierse nodded with a grin. They slung their rifles over their shoulders, said a quick prayer for good luck, and jumped onto the wooden crates. Korwin scrambled up them, and made a graceful leap onto the rooftop, Kierse coming behind.

He turned right and leapt over the small wall that bordered the roof of the building, and onto the next. His eyes widened as he saw three Imps crouched behind a similar partition that looked down on the street. They turned and saw him as he landed, but he was the faster one. He quickly raised his rifle and sent a concentrated storm of energy bolts into their midst, filling their armor with blackened holes.

He didn't spare them another thought, and rushed to the edge of that building, and jumped to the next. He was close enough now. He could look straight down onto the Imps that had come from the houses. Most of them had cover, in the form of crates, or wall abutments. Korwin pulled a plasma grenade from his harness and primed it, as Kierse did the same.

Korwin stood and threw his grenade, watching it roll, and then turning and closing his eyes against the bright explosion. A split second later, Kierse's exploded. Screams of pain were heard from the wounded, and Korwin looked down to see several stormtroopers still moving on the ground below.

He raised his rifle to his shoulder and fired three shots into the torso of each one that was still obviously alive, Kierse doing likewise. Kierse then shouted to Korwin, "They're coming down the rooftops!" Korwin looked where his friend began shooting, and saw that they were indeed heading down the rooftops towards them. Korwin look across the street, and saw four of them on top of the building by the alley, keeping a small group of troops from K company's first platoon pinned down.

They were within easy reach of Korwin's throwing arm, so he lobbed a concussion grenade over to their rooftop. The grenade landed behind them, and the resulting explosion blew them all off the roof. They were quickly sprayed with bolts by the troops they'd held pinned, and then those soldiers headed off down the alley with a sergeant from their platoon. Korwin heard Kierse stop firing, and saw that he'd finished off the small squad of Imps on the roof. He said, "I'm going back down!" In a raised voice, before carefully sliding off the edge of the one-story building and onto the street below.

Kierse followed momentarily, and they both began firing at the continuing waves of stormtroopers that ran down the street towards them. Korwin shot two Imps down in quick succession, and as they fell, saw four of them setting up a heavy repeating blaster cannon on a turret. He turned to Kierse, and shouted, "They're setting up a repeater!" He was about to stand and try and get to a closer cover point, when the Imps all moved along the walls, leaving an open field of fire for the repeater. The Imp manning the heavy blaster opened up on the rebels that were steadily advancing up the street.

Korwin saw four of the replacements with Kreth go down almost immediately, and two of the vets before they found cover. Korwin poked his head up and fired a couple shots, but the cannon swiveled towards him and opened fire. Korwin cursed, and dove sideways into a doorway. As he landed, he felt a familiar burning sensation on his calf. He hissed at the pain, but quickly pulled his leg in and stood up. Kierse was on the other side of the street now, in a different doorway.

Korwin leaned out far enough to look back at Kreth, but couldn't see her behind the cover she'd found. "Sithspit!" He snarled, at no one in particular. He leaned against the door, and suddenly found himself falling inward. He reached out and caught the doorframe, and managed to keep his balance. He whirled around, and was surprised to see a Weequay dressed in shabby brown clothes standing in the door. It gave the weequay equivalent of a smirk, and said in heavily accented basic, "The big gun has nothing behind. The Imps run to the arena. I show you the back door." The weequay turned and led Korwin through the house, to the back door. He opened it and pointed off to his right. "Alleyway, it will go behind big gun."

Korwin said, "Thanks." And ran off for the alley. When he came to it, he was sure that he was far enough to be beyond the cannon. He crept silently through the alley, and flattened himself against the wall as he neared its end. He peeked cautiously out, and saw no Imps behind him, and in front of him, the cannon, and the stormtroopers lining the streets, helping keep the rebels pinned. Their backs were turned, and they had no idea he was there. Korwin smiled cruelly, took careful aim on the stormtrooper who was firing the repeater, and squeezed the trigger. The blaster barked once, and recoiled gently against his shoulder. He watched as the bright red energy bolt screamed through the air, and lanced through the stormtroopers helmeted head. He dropped, his body twitching.

Several of the stormtroopers lining the streets stopped firing at the repeaters sudden silence, and turned to look. Korwin used the opportunity to throw another grenade, and then duck behind the alley wall. He heard his grenade explode, and several cries of pain, and he smiled in satisfaction. He ran halfway down the alley, on the way to the backs of the houses, then turned and dropped to one knee. The dumb bastards would run after him. He knew they would.

Sure enough, a group of five rounded the corner, to be met with a prolonged volley of blaster bolts that lasted for the remainder of Korwin's blaster pak. When they were dead, he quickly released his spent blaster pak, and slipped a new one in. He primed it, and then ran back to the street at the end of the alley. He peeked around the corner again, and saw that the stormtroopers here were now fighting a losing battle, as troops from the other companies involved in the assault began to enter the town and overwhelm them.

Korwin could hear Captain Borlin shouting orders over the din of combat, but couldn't make out what they were from that distance. He leaned around the corner and shot another stormtrooper down, and then resolved to sit and wait for his unit to reach him. He didn't have to wait long, as the remaining stormtroopers in that area of the street were mopped up. He lowered his head a little as Borlin strode up to him.

"Just what the hell kind of crazy stunt was that Nalan?"

"Sir, I felt that if we could stop the repeater, then we could continue our advance." Korwin said, meeting his CO's eye.

"Well, then advance." The Captain said testily. Korwin nodded and did so. Kreth and Kierse trotted up alongside him, and Jenrol followed a moment later.

They advanced up the street for about a quarter-mile, before making a sharp right turn and heading towards the arena. Korwin's eyes were never still, and his hearing was hyper-sensitive. They were coming up on a large market square, with empty merchants stalls lining the walls of the buildings that formed the square. Kreth suddenly shouted, "Take cover!" a moment before the street was filled with blaster fire.

Korwin ducked into another doorway, and was reminded of his wounded leg, as the injury began to burn again. He ignored the pain, and looked around the corner. There were two repeating cannons, and both appeared to be inside merchant stalls. The other stalls provided cover for stormtroopers in two's and three's, the Imps taking cover in a semicircle around the street the rebels were coming from, creating a field of enfilading fire. There seemed to be only the one street through this square, and Korwin couldn't see a way around the place.

He ducked back behind cover as the wall next to his head was sprayed down with bolts. Korwin's thoughts momentarily drifted to Eli. _Do you fight?_ She'd asked. _No. I'm with the quartermaster's division._ He'd told her. He thumped his head against the wall, but was prevented from feeling any pain by his helmet. He leaned around the corner and fired again, but couldn't get a good shot off. He heard Borlin shout, "Sniper up!" and saw the company sharpshooter, Corporal Ildes Corven, charge up to a doorway two down from Korwin's. Korwin saw him aiming at one of the troops on the repeaters, and knew that he'd draw fire, and possibly be hit.

Korwin inhaled deeply, gathering his courage, then let the breath out, and stepped halfway around the corner, holding the trigger of his rifle down, and shooting down two of the troops in the merchant stalls. He also drew fire from both cannons. Just as he frantically fell behind cover, he heard the slightly deeper bark of a sniper rifle. The thin whitish bolt streaked into one of the stalls with a cannon, and the big repeater fell silent. The other one directed a heavy stream of fire at Corven, who stayed behind cover.

Korwin stepped out again, hoping to draw fire for the sniper, and was successful. The first bolt went through his thigh, the second through his right shoulder. He grunted, and was thrown on his back from the force of the repeater's bright yellow energy bolts. He heard the report of the sniper rifle again, and the second repeater fell silent. He heard Corven shouting, "Medic, I need a medic!" over the top of the intensifying lightfight. Korwin saw rebels running past them, firing as they ran, and groaned loudly at the pain in his leg and shoulder as he tried to sit up too quickly. He looked down at his shoulder, and saw a fair sized hole in his armor. It stung like crazy, but when he attempted to move it more slowly, it didn't feel too bad. His leg was a different story.

A bolt through the calf, and another through the thigh. He rolled onto his stomach and crawled back to his doorway. Sitting up, he took hold of his rifle, and pushed himself onto one knee. His mouth a tight line, he leaned out and shot at a stormtrooper, hitting him in the chest and shoulder. The Imp fell, wounded, but not dead. A medic came running up to Korwin and said, "I need to look at your leg."

Korwin nodded and sat back down inside the doorway. He heard a shout of "Grenade!" from the rebels in the street, followed by an explosion that made the groud shake, and then another from the square. He watched as the medic quickly and skillfully bandaged his wounds and then moved on to aid the more severely wounded.

Although they hurt, Korwin knew that his wounds were fairly superficial. He looked into the street, and saw that the rebels were already starting to move into the square and occupy the merchant stalls on their own side. Korwin got slowly to his feet, then dashed, heedless of the pain, to the nearest stall, blaster bolts flying all around him. Private Melara was hunkered inside, her face pale.

"You okay, Melara?" Asked Korwin, shouting to be heard over the fighting. She shook her head and pointed to her left shoulder. There was a large hole in it, just off where the armor covered. He turned and shouted, "Medic! Medic, I need help!"

She looked at him with tears in her eyes, and said, "I don't want to die, not yet! Please don't let me die, Nalan!"

"You're not gonna die, it's just a shoulder wound. Just relax." As he tried to sooth her, a medic came by, a male Bothan, and began administering treatment. He patted her gently on the thigh, and said, "See, you're okay now." He went up on his knees and looked over the top of the stall's counter. Resting his rifle on it to ease the strain on his wounded right shoulder, he fired a burst into a stall across the square that held three stormtroopers. He hit one in the head, but missed the other two, as they ducked under the counter.

An Iridonian with a rocket launcher ran out from his stall, and fired a high-explosive rocket at a small cluster of stalls that were attached to each other. His body was riddled with holes by the time the rocket exploded, but he had done his damage, taking out seven enemy before he went.

Korwin shot a few more down, and then heard the Imp's unit leader shouting, "Fall back, fall back!" The Imps laid down a withering cover fire and began retreating down the street at the other end of the square. Korwin and the other rebels returned fire from their places behind cover, and as soon as it looked clear, they began to move into the square. Borlin shouted, "After their asses, keep them running!"

Korwin looked down at Melara. The medic was just finishing with her. She was breathing easier now, and looked more relaxed. "You going to be okay?"

She nodded, and said, "I'm alright now. Go on." He nodded, and grabbed two passing troops from M company, who were just getting there. "She needs help getting back to the aid station by the ships. Get her there." He could tell that they were replacements by the fear on their faces, and they were only too happy to have a reason to get further away from the fighting.

Korwin, on the other hand, trotted as fast as his hurt leg would allow him, and caught up with his unit a block away. He immediately began firing his blaster rifle down the street at the retreating Imps, hitting several as he did. He pulled the trigger again, and got nothing. He stepped into a doorway, and ejected the empty pak from his blaster. He loaded and primed another, leaned out, and fired, dropping another Imp. Now, they simply turned and ran. A few rebels made to continue chasing them, but Borlin shouted, "Halt, hold you fire! Let em' go!"

The pursuing troops broke off and came back to the company. Korwin slid down the wall he was leaning against, and then heard the door hiss open. He looked to his right, and to his utter surprise, saw a stormtrooper standing there. His helmet was on, so Korwin couldn't see his face, but from his lack of reaction he must have been surprised as well. Korwin recovered first, bringing the barrel of his rifle to rest against the Imp's stomach and triggering a three round burst. The Imp fell backward, a choked cry coming from his helmet, clutching the large wound with both hands. Korwin heard the voices of several Imps from inside the house, and knew that they were coming to get him. He quickly primed a frag grenade and tossed it inside, just before the door closed. He heard a muffled shout, and a loud _BANG_ from inside. After that, there was silence. Korwin leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes.

He heard soft footsteps approaching, and opened his eyes to see who was coming. It was Kreth. She sat down across the doorway from him and said, "Looks like we get a rest. The transports carrying 1st and 3rd battalions just landed a quarter-mile out. They'll be here in no time, and are going ahead to work at the arena for a bit."

He closed his eyes again, and said, "Good. My leg hurts." He could hear the cries of the wounded, both the rebels, and the voices of hurt stormtroopers up the street. He didn't cry out. He was too tired now. _Being wounded takes a lot of energy_, he mused to himself.

* * *

"I ended up beingevacuated from Mos Espa, and was sent to a temporary aid station, where the transports were landed. Ours had moved up to join the new ones, and two of the ships were being used as hospitals. One was filled with wounded, the other just getting started. I got a spot in the second one, and spent the next two days recovering. I should have taken longer, but...it goes back to that first wound. Same thing. Mos Espa was taken later that night, so we figured Tatooine would be easy." 

Laina nodded her head. "What changed after that?"

"They fought better. We lost a couple battles."

"How did it turn into a fourteen monthcampaign for the planet?" She asked.

"They just wouldn't leave." He said. His stomach rumbled, and he put a hand on it. "Do you mind if we break for lunch. I'm a bit hungry."

Laina smiled. "Not at all. See you in an hour?"

Korwin nodded. "See you in an hour."


	9. Soldier 08

Korwin walked into the interview room, a satisfied smile on his face, and sat down in his chair. He scratched his chin and then folded his hands contentedly across his full stomach, watching Laina, waiting for her to begin.

Laina smiled at Korwin, and asked, "How was lunch?"

His smile broadened, and he said, "You know, I just had the best nerf steak I've ever had, down at this little diner called Kerzke's a couple buildings down. Nice and juicy, not too heavily seasoned, not too cooked. Perfect."

Laina said, "Kerzke's is one of my favorites. You should try their fasi, it's wonderful. Some of the best Nubian food on Coruscant."

Korwin nodded his head, but his face bore a look of skepticism. "Well, I've been eating the best fasi in the galaxy for almost thirty-five years, courtesy of my wife, so I'm a tough customer to please in that department. I'll give it a try though."

Laina laughed lightly, and said, "That's right, your wife is from Naboo." She turned on her datapad and said, "Well, shall we begin then?"

Korwin wetted his lips with his tongue, and slowly nodded. Of all the places he'd been during the war, Tatooine was still the hardest for him to talk about. He started slowly, softly, saying, "Taking Mos Espa was easy. Almost too easy." He licked his lips again, and let his head fall back against the backrest of the chair. Closing his eyes, he said, "I went back to Mos Espa, to my unit, after two days at the aid station. The people had come back, despite warnings from the battalion commanders that the Imps would probably mount a counterattack." He fell silent, and took a deep, shaky breath. He sat there, still, his eyes closed, not speaking.

Laina said, "Mr. Nalan, I know this is difficult to talk about, and we can move on and come back later if you'd like." Her eyes displayed a sympathy that almost made Korwin want to retch. He shook his head vehemently at that.

"No, we'll keep going." He took a long drink from his water, and then set the glass down on the table next to his chair. "Two days after I came back, Borlin called me into his tent."

* * *

Korwin smiled at the human girl sitting just outside her doorway. She couldn't have been older than twelve, and he found himself reminded of his sister. He'd been taking a leisurely stroll down the path that the fight had taken the other night, when he'd seen her next to the doorway he'd taken cover inby to the marketplace.

She was sitting down on the spot where his legs had lain when the repeating blaster cannon had knocked him on his back. His leg was still quite tender, as was his shoulder, but the bacta injections he'd been given over the last couple days were helping. He had bacta patches on them as well, but knew it would be days yet before the pain really started to fade.

The girl looked up at him and smiled, her brown eyes twinkling with childlike innocence, and Korwin couldn't help but smile back. Seeing people here, citizens, almost brought a sense of normalcy to the war. But then he'd see the four man patrols of Alliance troops walking through the city, fully armed and ready for combat, and it would shatter the illusion. He turned to keep on walking, when he heard Captain Borlin's voice. "Nalan!"

Korwin turned around, and saw the Captain approaching at a brisk pace. Korwin saluted, as Borlin came to a stop in front of him. Borlin returned the salute, and said, "Nalan, I want you to come with me."

"Yes sir." Korwin said, and followed Borlin as he walked back the way Korwin had come, and into the tent-city that now housed the Alliance troops. He followed Borlin into his tent, and sat in the chair that Borlin directed him to.

Borlin sat down across the desk from Korwin, and leaned back in his chair. He stared at Korwin, but said nothing. Korwin stared back. After almost two minutes, Korwin couldn't stand it any longer. "Sir? If you don't mind me asking, why am I here?"

Captain Borlin chuckled mirthfully, and then leaned forward on his desk, resting his chin in the palm of his hand. "I was wondering how long you'd hold out." He blinked rapidly, as if there was something in his eye that was bothering him. "The reason I called you here, Nalan...is to tell you that you are being promoted to Corporal."

Korwin sat back in his chair, flabberghasted. "Sir, I don't know what to say, I mean..."

"Don't say anything, because I'm not finished yet. Because of the success of the recon patrols on Gnazt, starting with yours, and the success of similar operations on other planets by other units, High Command has authorized the formation of one long range reconnaissance patrol unit per company."

Korwin nodded slowly, but didn't say anything. The Captain continued, saying, "These recon units are to be composed of five troops, instead of the four we'd been running with. There will be a team leader, an assistant team leader, a medic, a demolitions expert, and a sniper. The sniper will be assigned the duties of a rifleman unless the opportunity for sniping comes up. They'll be outfitted with a modified E-33 blaster rifle that has an enlongated barrel, and a 10x IR optional scope. You with me so far?"

Korwin nodded again, and said, "I'm guessing you want me to be in the K Company recon."

Borlin smiled now, and a gentler look than Korwin had ever seen on him came over his face. "Actually," he said, "I want you to lead it."

Confusion warred with pride in the young mans mind, and he put a hand to his forehead, his face displaying his thoughts like a book. Looking up at his CO, he asked, "But why?"

"Because you've got balls, and you've got brains; you just don't use the latter enough. You're too damn reckless half the time, and frankly that worries me." Borlin said, his voice firmer. "I appreciate what you've done so far, but you need to slow down, be more cautious."

"I am cautious!" Korwin protested loudly, his tone defensive.

Borlin almost laughed at that. "You've been with Krayt Company for what...three and a half, four months now?"

Korwin nodded his head, and answered, "Something like that."

Borlin pursed his lips, and blew out a long breath. Standing up, he walked over to the blank holomap and leaned against it. Looking back at Korwin, he asked, "How many times have you been wounded?"

Korwin thought about it hard for a moment, his mouth curling down into a frown, and his brows furrowing. He'd never really thought about it before. He got hurt, he went to the aid station or got light duty, he went AWOL and returned to combat early. Then the replay reel started, and it all came back in an instant. "Just three. Why?"

"Just three?" Borlin repeated incredulously. "I was wounded four times over the course of three years of service during the Clone Wars." Borlin said, his face becoming pinched and mean-looking. "You are doing everything in your sithspawned power to make sure that I am short another man!"

He began to pace back and forth through the tent. "To answer your question, why; because you have been wounded more times per capita than any troop in the damn battalion!" He thundered, his face turning red, and spittle flying from his mouth. "Do you have any idea how many godsdamned reports I'll have to fill out if you keep going at this rate and don;t die?"

Borlin crossed the small distance between himself and Korwin and crouched in front of his chair. "You're smart, and I know it, but you take risks like a dumbshit kid who saw too many Clone Wars holodramas and took that bullshit to heart!"

Korwin sat through it, knowing that Borlin was right. Nobody in the company had been wounded more than four times, and those guys had been there from the beginning.

"You're making a name for yourself, as a fucking maverick, and I don't tolerate those in my units!" Borlin got right in Korwin's face now, so that he could feel the flecks of saliva spattering on his cheeks, as the Captain bellowed at him from three inches away, "One of these days, Nalan, you are going to pull one of your crazy stunts, and someone is going to die because of it. Wouldn't you feel like an asshole if it didn't turn out to be you!" Borlin stood up abruptly, and turned from Korwin. Going behind his desk again, he sat down.

Speaking normally again, Borlin said, "I'm giving you command of this unit because I know one thing about you. You care about your fellow soldiers. I know that you do the things you do, because you see an opportunity to save lives. But your efforts are sometimes misguided. A lot of those guys who ran into the yard after you, got blown to shit, and most of the troops in the camp got into the bunker."

He sighed, and his face took on a slightly downcast look. "You did good work out there, and made it a lot easier to get though. Missions like that, work like that, can be a very beneficial thing to a regular infantry unit...when it's carefully planned to minimize risk to yourself and your fellow troops."

Borlin leaned forward and steepled his hands in front of his face. "I think you've got it in you to be a hell of a recon man, you've shown it already. You've got natural instincts that are hard to teach, and you're a sneaky bastard. But you've also got the makings of a good leader. People like you, Nalan. And they trust you. Kierse, Kreth, they trust you." He eyed Korwin for a moment, his face unreadable, his blue eyes boring a hole through him. Then he said, "Tandro trusted you."

For Korwin, that was it. He nodded his head, his face wistful as he thought of his good friend. "Alright, I'll do it."

Borlin smiled at him and slapped his desk happily. "Alright then!" He stood up and said, "First things first. You'll need to assemble a squad. I'm sure you've already got a couple people in mind. Pick who you want, and I'll see to it that you all get whatever training and equipment you need."

Korwin stood up and was about to leave the tent, when he turned and said, "If I'm the patrol leader, then everybody listens to me, right?"

Borlin nodded his head. "Don't worry about rank. In a recon unit, you follow the team rank. If the team leader is a corporal, and the demolitions guy is a sergeant, the demo guy is still a subordinate to the team leader, even on the base." He grinned, his eyes staring into some distant place, as he said, "Recon is a whole different saabac game. You'll like it."

* * *

Korwin lay on his cot, ignoring the loud chatter and laughter of the other troops, trying to pretend that the shade that 3rd platoon's tent provided gave him respite from the heat. He had been mulling over who to select for his recon team for the last three hours. He knew that he wanted Kreth and Kierse, but was having an exceedingly difficult time choosing the other two. After a few more minutes, he decided to talk to Kreth and Kierse about it.

The two of them were sitting with Jenrol, playing saabac on Kierse's cot. Korwin approached them and said, "Hey, Kreth, Kierse, can I talk to you outside for a minute?"

Without looking up from the game, Kierse said, "Fuck you, Nalan. It's hotter than a Kandarian plasma oven out there. I'm fine right where I am."

Kreth threw a card at Kierse and nailed him on the bridge of the nose. "Don't be an asshole Kierse. Get your lazy ass up." Kreth stood up and followed Korwin outside, Kierse following behind, muttering under his breath.

Korwin led them several feet away from the tent, and stopped. They looked at him expectantly, and he asked, "You remember that night recon mission we did on Gnazt?"

Kierse laughed and said, "How can we forget? Your clumsiness saved us all."

Korwin rolled his eyes, and said, "Anyway, Borlin's getting a permanent recon team started. Every company is gonna have one from now on." He took a deep breath and said, "Borlin's making me team leader of K Company recon."

Kierse cocked his head to the side, and said, "No shit huh? You're the team leader?" Korwin nodded, and Kierse said, "Why not a sergeant, or an LT?"

Korwin shrugged. "Because he wants me to run it. I'll be in charge regardless of rank. I just need four other troops. You guys were the first two I thought of."

Kreth beamed at him, and said, "I'm in."

"Cool...Kierse?" Korwin asked, his eyebrows raised.

"What do I get to be?" The read-head asked, his eyes narrowed.

"I need an assistant team leader, but that's Kreth." Said Korwin. "I need a sniper, a medic, and a demolitions expert."

Kierse frowned, and his face clouded. "I'm none of those."

Korwin held up his hands to placate his friend, and said, "That's okay. Borlin said he'd get us any training we needed. He left choosing the team to me."

A slow grin spread across Kierse's face, that lopsided grin that identified Corellian's across the galaxy. "Can I be the demolitions guy?" He asked, his voice sounding almost hopeful.

"I don't know about that. You sound a little too excited about it. Might get a little crazy and blow us up by accident."

Now Kierse threw his hands up in mock disgust, and said loudly, "Ah, for fuck's sake Nalan, will you cut the shit!"

Korwin laughed, and said, "Okay, okay, it's yours."

"Yes!" Kierse exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air.

"Now, I need some help."

Kierse asked, "With what?"

"Who else to choose." Korwin said.

Kreth and Kierse both thought about it for a moment, and then Kreth said, "Well, what abou-"

She was cut off as the distinctive sound of TIE's floated to them over the desert sands. "You hear that?" She asked.

Korwin and Kierse both answered in the affirmative. They all began looking around, and saw one of the replacements from 1st platoon pointing out over the Dune Sea. Korwin followed his gaze, and he nearly shit himself. A squadron of TIE bombers was coming in from the direction of the wastes, headed straight for Mos Espa and the Alliance base camp. "Incoming!" Korwin shouted at the top of his lungs.

Shortly after arrival, the rebels had set up several turbolaser batteries around the camp, for just such an event. Korwin could see three of them now, the gun crews swarming around them, preparing them to fire. He stood, rooted in place, watching as the bombers closed the distance to the camp swiftly.

As the guns opened up, Kreth said, "We've got to find cover!"

"Where?" Korwin shouted. There was nowhere. One of the bombers went down in a blazing mass of twisted durasteel. Korwin watched, horrified, as it slammed into one of the transports being used as a hospital. "Oh fuck!" He shouted, and started for the ship, in the hopes that some of their wounded might have survived the impact.

Kierse shouted, "Nalan, no!" and tried to grab his friend, but Korwin was too fast, and sprinted off. A moment later, the bomber's payload was ignited in the blaze, and both ships went up in a great ball of flame. Korwin could feel the scorching heat from almost two hundred yards away, and the ground shook mightily.

The concussion wave hit him seconds later, and he was thrown roughly to the ground, his ears ringing. A moment later, he heard the peculiar whistling sound that announced the impending arrival of Imperial bombs. He rolled onto his stomach and pulled his knees up into his chest, covering the back of his head and neck with both hands.

The first bomb struck the ground, he couldn't see where, but he felt the ground shake, and the concussion wash over him. A moment later, a bomb slammed into the ground next to him. The air was sucked from his lungs, and he no longer felt the ground beneath him. There was a momentary feeling of weightlessness, and then he hit the dirt hard.

His ears were ringing loudly, and his head throbbed. He felt a trickle of something warm and wet run out of his left ear, and slowly reached a shaking, scraped up hand to it. It came back bloody. He felt the ground trembling violently still, and laid there, curling into a fetal position, waiting for it to end.

His hearing was muffled by the ringing, and everything sounded distant, faint. He could barely hear an explosion somewhere in the sky, just underneath the sounds of the bombs exploding, and the steady, rhythmic firing of the turbolasers on the ground. He turned his head fractionally, and looked into the sky to see a TIE bomber careening out of control, one pod and wing missing. It slammed into another one, and they exploded spectacularly, sending a fiery storm of debris down into the rebel camp.

The bombs began to move away now, and he slowly pushed himself up on his hands and knees. He instantly wished he hadn't. The bombs were falling on Mos Espa. His mouth opened in a silent cry of grief, as he thought of the girl who'd reminded him of his sister. He suddenly felt the need to find her, to make sure she was safe.

Korwin forced himself to his feet, and he swooned, his head pounding. He was overcome by a powerful wave of nausea, and he bent over and vomited hard, emptying his stomach of his breakfast and lunch. He stood for a moment like that, until the pounding in his skull diminished to a dull vibration that was only slightly less pianful, and then began running towards Mos Espa, staggering like a drunk.

He heard another sound, a deeper engine wash, and looked up as he ran. He felt a moment of elation at the sight of a squadron of X-wings flying in to pick off the TIE bombers. Moments later, TIE interceptors flew in to meet the X-wings. The sounds of battle grew more heated, as the powerful laser cannons on the fighter's began opening up in the skies above Mos Espa, and Korwin hurried on into the city.

He made it almost to the street he thought she lived on, when he was stricken by another wave of overwhelming nausea. He stumbled, and fell to the ground. His head struck the packed dirt hard, and his stomach released it's remaining contents in a nasty smelling pool of red-tinged bile that spread under his face, and quickly turned the ground beneath his head into a disgusting, muddy mess.

He tried to lift his head, but it exploded in pain and his neck went limp. His head dropped back onto the ground, and his vision went dim. He tried to force his eyes open, but he suddenly felt exhausted. His eyes slid shut against his will, and he slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

At first there was nothing; no sound, no light. Just emptiness. Then a gentle humming, more felt than heard, a slow vibration of sound that caressed his ears like the softest of silk sheets. A soft light began to shine, beginning as a tiny pinprick of crimson and pink on a black canvas. It spread slowly, becoming more diffuse as it went, and a comforting warmth spread over him. Tiny motes of light sparkled in the pale glow, floating around him like tiny stars orbiting his weightless body.

The humming grew subtly louder, and the light ever so slightly brighter, and he heard the sound of a drum beating steadily, somewhere in the distance. He took a shallow breath, and then exhaled, and continued, keeping time with the rhythm of the drum that echoed through his head. He felt a warm breeze blowing gently across him, and the light grew brighter still, and he felt his head resting on something soft.

His eyes began to focus as reality faded back into existence, and he realized that he was on his back, staring at the evening sky at sunset, his head in someone's lap. The tiny motes of light were specks of dust that floated about on the warm, gentle currents of air. He slowly tilted his head back, and relief flooded through him as he met a pair of big brown eyes.

The young girl smiled at him, and continued humming, gently stroking his head. Korwin smiled back and closed his eyes again. The lullaby she was humming was familiar to him. His mother used to sing it to him when he was little. He let himself fall into his memories, and allowed unconsciousness to embrace him once again.

* * *

When next he awoke, Korwin found himself laying on his cot, a cold compress on his head.

"You're awake. That's good." Kreth's voice, just to his right. He turned his head and saw her sitting on her cot. He removed the cold compress and slowly sat up.

"How long have I been out?" He asked. His voice was hoarse, and his mouth and throat were parched.

"About eighteen hours. It's almost 1400, on the fifteenth." Kreth said, as she offered him a canteen.

Korwin took the proffered vessel and took a long, slow drink. He wiped his mouth with the back of his left hand, and winced at the pain it produced. He looked down at his hand to see angry red welts and a couple of small blisters. He was wearing nothing but a pair of loose surgeons pants, and a bandage that covered most of his left side. He looked at it, and then up to Kreth.

In answer to his silent question, she said, "Minor burns, nothing more. They just wanted to keep them from getting infected while they heal. The nurse at the aid station said you also had a mild concussion."

He took another sip from the canteen and then put the cap on. He set it down next to him on the cot and looked around the tent. He saw Kierse sleeping on his cot, and breathed easier knowing that both his friends had come through unscathed. Looking back to Kreth, he asked, "Who did we lose?"

"All of 1st platoon, most of 3rd. 2nd platoon got by okay, and 4th too. The other battalions were hit just as hard as we were, and there's word that it's just as bad at Anchorhead and Mos Eisley. There have been a lot of civilian casualities too." Kreth's expression was grim, as she went on, "Apparently, they dropped a small fleet into orbit to reinforce the one that we pretty much decimated to prepare for our invasion. They've been fighting it out up there all night. I guess they're supposed to provide a distraction for our fighters so that the bombers they've got on-planet can do their work."

Korwin nodded his head, frowning at the news. It made sense, but he hated it. "Where'd you find me?" He asked. His memory was a little fuzzy.

She took a moment, and then said, "Well...we found you in Mos Espa, while we were looking for survivors. You were just lying there, in the middle of the street, with your head on some little girl's lap. She was humming some song to you, stroking your head, and you were out like a light." She smiled, and ran a hand through her short black hair. "It was kind of sweet actually."

Korwin snorted, and then coughed hard, his throat constricting painfully. A particularly violent hack produced a large wad of dirt-colored phlegm. Korwin uncapped the canteen and took another drink from it. "Shit, that was nasty." He remarked, looking at the chunk of lung chowder decorating the dirt floor. He kicked some dirt on it and took one more long swig from the canteen before handing it back to Kreth. "Borlin?"

She nodded. "He's fine. He said he wanted to see you when you woke up."

Korwin nodded, and went to stand. His head began to swim, and spots appeared in his vision. He sat back down quickly and said with a sheepish grin, "Maybe you could go get him for me."

Kreth chuckled and patted him on the knee. A wry smile on her face, she said, "Maybe I could." She stood up and left the tent. Korwin lay back down to wait for Borlin's arrival. He closed his eyes his eyes for a moment, thinking that they felt so very heavy. _I'll just rest em' for a few minutes. Just till the Captain gets here._

* * *

"I actually ended up falling asleep again. I woke up the next morning, right about 0500, same as everyone else. I had my meeting with the Captain then." Korwin said.

Laina nodded slowly, her eyes on the screen of her datapad. She looked up at him, and asked, "Was Tatooine always like that, or was that the worst?"

He grimaced at the question, as though it left a bad taste in his mouth. "We'll get there tomorrow." Was the answer he finally gave.

Laina smiled, and nodded again, and said, "That's just fine. Tomorrow at nine...excuse me," she said with a light-hearted grin, "0900." She finished.

Korwin grinned back, his melancholy seemingly gone for now. "0900 then."


	10. Soldier 09

Two things before we get started. One, I'm still pushing for reviews, so if you happen to have one handy, and maybe you don't need it or you can lend it to me for a while...well, you know. I've only got one so far, and it's hard to build a steam compression engine with that.

Two, I thought that I would take a moment to type up the lyrics to a song that has been instrumental (Get it? Instrumental...it's a song, man...never mind) in the writing of this story. They are as follows:

"What's Left of the Flag"

Flogging Molly

_His eyes, they closed, a__nd his last breath spoke_

_He had seen all to be seen_

_A life, once full, n__ow an empty vase, w__ilt the blossoms on his early grave_

_Walk away me boy, __walk away me boy, __and by morning we'll be free_

_Wipe the golden tear f__rom your mother dear, __and raise what's left of the flag for me_

_Then the rosary beads, c__ount them, 1, 2, 3, f__ell apart as they hit the floor_

_In a garb of black, w__e must pay respect, t__o the color we're born to mourn_

_Walk away me boys, w__alk away me boys, a__nd by morning we'll be free_

_Wipe the golden tear, f__rom your mother dear, a__nd raise what's left of the flag for me_

_In it's place there grew a__n angry, festered wound, f__illed with hatred and remorse_

_Where I pick and scratch, t__ill the blood it matched, t__he silent rage that now fills my lungs_

_For there are many ways to __kill a man they say, w__ith bayonet, axe, or sword_

_But son, a bullet fired, f__rom a shapeless guise, j__ust put the shell of a Thompson Gun_

_Walk away me boys, w__alk away me boys, a__nd by morning we'll be free_

_Wipe the golden tear __from your mother dear, __and raise what's left of the flag for me_

_From the east down to the western shore_

_Where many men and many more will fall_

_No angel flies with me tonight, t__hough freedom reigns on all_

_And curse the name, f__or which we slaved our days, s__o every man chose kingdom come_

_But sure as night turns day i__t's the passion play, o__h my god, what have they done_

_With madman's rage, w__ell the dogged craze, b__ut the dead rise again you fools_

_Walk away me boys, w__alk away me boys, a__nd by morning we'll be free_

_Wipe the golden tear, f__rom your mother dear, a__nd raise what's left of the flag for me_

* * *

Korwin sat in his chair, his expression distant, his mind lost inanother time. Laina watched him as his lips began to move. She hadn't said anything but hello today. He'd just sat down and started talking, not waiting for her to ask any questions. She turned on her datapad, and as she began jotting down her notes, she found herself transported, as always when Korwin began telling his story, to a time when she hadn't yet been born, when the galaxy was at war with itself.

* * *

Korwin stood with Kierse and Kreth on top of a sand dune outside their base, his eyes fixed on a monotonous horizon; all golden sand and pale blue sky. Some ways out, Korwin could just make out a small herd of four-legged beasts, loitering lazily in the heat of midday. Of course, they could also have been dying of dehydration. Korwin seemed to be. At least, that's how it felt. Gnazt had been hot. Tatooine was a blazing inferno, with two suns beating down through the heavy atmosphere, scorching the surface of the moisture deprived world. 

It had been eight days since the Imp's brutal counterattack, which had left almost half as many civilians dead as soldiers. There hadn't been another as of yet, but no one was holding their breath that another wouldn't come. In the wake of the bombing, the Alliance troops had first dealt with cataloguing and bagging the all too numerous dead for return to their homes and families. Afterwards had come the lessarduous task of moving their base to another location, just a fifth of a mile south of Mos Espa.

For Korwin, however, the hardest part was what the troops were starting to call DBP's; short for Dead Baby Patrol's. These patrols involved going into Mos Espato searchboth forsurvivors who may have been trapped under rubble, and those who were not so lucky. They were so named for the unfortunate fact that most of the civilian dead they'd been digging out of the rubble were children; their fragile bodies shattered and torn by the Imperial bombs and the tumbling buildings.

Korwin had found four himself. None of them older than seven, the youngest perhaps three months old. Despite theterrible things he'd already witnessed, throughout his life in theslums, and his time in the Army, those were thethings hemost fervently wished he could unsee. Theimages of those small, broken bodies were burned indelibly into the fabric of his mind, and he knew he'd carry them for the rest of his life.

With great effort,he pushedthe horrific images to the back of his mind, andforced himselfto get down to business. Turning to his two friends, he said, "We need to choose the last two members of the team."

Kierse said nothing, continuing instead to stare in silence at the distant horizon. He'd just come back from a DBP an hour earlier. It usually took some time to process the things one saw on such a mission. Luckily, the proverbial well was beginning to run dry.

Kreth said, "I agree." She ran a hand through her hair, and then said, "I was thinking Jenrol, maybe, would be good. He's a vet, like us, and even if he's a little weird, he's a good soldier."

Korwin nodded his agreement, and chewed his lip as he thought for a moment. He grinned and snapped his fingers, and said, "He'll be our medic."

Kreth folded her arms beneath her breasts and nodded her head at his statement. Looking back out to the horizon again, she said, "We still need a sniper then. Corven would be the easiest; he's already trained."

"Ildes Corven? No." He shook his head emphatically. "I like the guy, and he's a great sniper, but he's not our man. Too arrogant."

Kreth turned to Korwin, put her hands on her hips, and said. "He's the only fully-trained sniper we have in the company right now, and I really don't think any of the other company CO's are going to want to spare their's. If not Corven, then who?"

Korwin shrugged, and neither his face, nor his voice suggested any sense of urgency when he replied, "Don't know. Have to wait and see."

"For how long?" Kreth asked, but it was too late to get a response, as Korwin was already walking down the side of the dune, headed back for camp. He heard her heave a put upon sigh and follow, and was glad she asked no more questions.

Kierse finally spoke up as they were strolling back through camp, and nearing their tent. "Say, Nalan...I met this kid, a replacement from 2nd platoon, during that DBP today."

"And?" Korwin asked, pushing aside the tent flap and walking into their living space.

Kierse followed him to his cot and sat down next to him. "Well, I overheard him and Corven talking, about how Corven was such a good sniper and all, and this kid says to him, 'Well I bet I could shoot the eyes out of one of those womprats at four hundred yards, iron sights.'" He chuckled. "That shut Corven up."

Korwin raised an eyebrow at the alleged assertion. "You remember his name?"

Kierse nodded thoughtfully and said, "I think it was Private Haslin."

Korwin shook his head, and said, "Don't know him. Can you point him out?"

Kierse shrugged his shoulders and said, "I imagine the best thing to do is go next door to 2nd platoon's tent and see if he's there."

"Well let's go then." Korwin stood up and looked over at Kreth, and asked, "You coming?"

"No," she said with a little toss of her head, as though flipping back her once long hair, "My stomach is a little upset. I think I'm just going to lay down for a little while."

"Okay. I'll let you know about the guy when we get back."

Kreth nodded her head, and said, "You got it. I'll be waiting with bated breath."

Korwin chuckled and said, "Alright then. Chill out and get right, we'll be back." He picked up a pair of electrobinoculars out of his pack, and turned and walked out of the tent, Kierse on his heels. Next door, to the right, was 2nd platoon's tent. Korwin stepped inside, and nodded to a couple of the guys he knew. He heard a shout of, "Hey, Korwin, what's goin' on?" from the back of the tent.

He looked around for the source of the voice, confused at the use of his first name. No one used first names here. And the voice sounded familiar. He cast his gaze left and right, and grinned broadly as he caught sight of another black-skinned human male.

"Oh shit, Avery Azen!" Avery was a friend of his from Tides, and a member of the gang Korwin's father had helped start. He was only a couple years older than Korwin, and must have just arrived with the new set of replacements the day before.

Korwin and he exchanged a complex handshake, and Korwin was amazed his fingers didn't stumble over the intricate maneuvers. He hadn't done it in months. When they'd finished, they hugged each other tightly, slapping each others backs hard. When they released each other, Korwin said, "Damn, Avery, what the fuck are you doing here?" Korwin realized he'd just used Avery's first name as well, but it was really difficult to think of him as just Azen.

"Shit, same thing as you, _Coropral_." He overemphasized Korwin's rank, as he looked at the corporal's stripes that had just recently been sewn onto the sleeves of his jumpsuit. He took a bite off a ration bar, made a strange face at the taste, and then recovered, saying, "You know that old Twilek at the market?" Korwin nodded his head, a wry smile on his face, but he said nothing.

"Well man, some shit went down, and I got caught up in it. You know those bantha-fucking punks down in south Tides, right? The Black Sabers?" He sneered, and slowly ran a hand over his bald head, the sneer turning slowly into a satisfied grin. "You know how we roll in the northside. The Robbin' Crew don't take shit from nobody."

Korwin laughed and they repeated a shorter version of that handshake, as he said, "Just like that, man, just like that."

"So my little sister is goin' with some guy from southside, one of these Saber motherfuckers, right?" Avery took another bite of his ration bar, and said, whilst chewing, "I'm figurin', you know, like I'm bein' pretty understandin' about all this shit." He swallowed his mouthful and said, "But then one day she comes home with a black eye, and I ask her where she got it, and she says her and one of her friends was playin' around at the high school and she accidently got smacked."

He spat on the ground, anger playing over his dark features now, and said, "Fuck that! I knew she was full of shit, she's such a fuckin' girly girl, man. She wouldn't be fuckin' around like that."

Avery sat down on his cot, and said, "So I go over to her girlfriend's house, ask her what happened. She says that they were skipping class, hangin' down in southside with this dude Amasi's been seein'. Now, you know that my sister got some lip on her, and this dude starts sayin' embarrassin' shit about her to his boys, talkin' 'bout how she is in the sack n' shit, what her titties look like. So she says he's got a short lightsaber, and it always goes out as soon as it touches moisture."

Korwin threw his head back and laughed hard at that, and even Kierse, who'd felt very odd so far during the little reunion, had to laugh. "Shit man," said Korwin, "I could just hear her saying that too."

Avery was laughing as well, but it suddenly ceased as he said, "So he punched her in the fuckin' eye." His face turned deadly serious, and he said, "I went down there as soon as I found out, went to that dude's house, and fucked him up."

Korwin raised an eyebrow, and said, "And they sent you here for that?"

Avery shook his head, and said, "Fuck no! Three days later, him and four of his boys came by our neighborhood, askin' about me. They stopped by my apartment and even asked my fuckin' mother. Can you believe that shit? The fuckin' disrespect?"

Kierse was now staring at Korwin with slightly widened eyes, as if to ask, "Is this guy for real?"

Korwin ignored Kierse's look, and said, "Man, that's fucked up. What did you do?"

"What the hell you think I did?" Avery asked, a dark frown drawing his brows together. "I was on my way home with Oset and Elan, gettin' ready to smoke some rhondys and chill. Low and behold, here comes these motherfucker's walkin' around the corner a couple blocks from my house, actin' like they own the whole fuckin' block. We drew down on those punks so quick, they didn't even get blasters in their hands."

"Shit, is killing someone a requirement to get into the Alliance where you guys are from?" Kierse muttered, still being ignored.

"And Faroul tagged you, told you he could get out of a life in the Mountain." Korwin said to Avery, apparentlynot registering Kierse's statement.

"Exactly." Avery said, a lazy grin spreading across his face.

Korwin shook his head and laughed. "Damn, man," he said when he got his laughing under control. "Same shit that happened to me and Juri." A concerned look passed over his features. "Say, what about Juri?"

Avery said, "Yeah, Faroul got to him too. Fat bastard's been keepin' tabs on you guys since you left. I already heard about you gettin' blown up and shot n' shit."

Korwin's face fell, and he said, "My mother?"

Avery nodded his head, and replied, "Oh yeah, her too. She's the one been keepin' us all updated. Juri's mom too. Your mom is worried and all that, but she's keepin' her chin up."

Korwin sighed, relieved to hear that his mom was doing well. "What about Kyren and Elleri?" He asked, suddenly eager for news of home.

"Your sister is doin' good, man. Same as always. Kyren's been workin' at Faroul's. Li'l punk's really cleaned his shit up, got right, you know? And some other folks know what you guys are doin'; they been helpin' your's and Juri's moms make ends meet." Avery grinned at his old friend as he finished.

Korwin closed his eyes, the good news bringing him a sense of inner peace that rivaled that of Eli and Naboo. It wasa feeling he'd sorely needed after the last few days.Now that he knew his family was okay, he asked about his other friend again. "So, Juri's okay too?"

Avery shrugged. "Last I heard, yeah. That was almost a month ago though. Faroul said he took some kind of attitude test or somethin', for bein' a pilot."

Kierse, entirely bored with the conversation, interjected with, "I believe the word you were looking for was _aptitude_."

Avery looked at Kierse side-long for a moment, and then looked at Korwin. "Who the fuck is this?"

Korwin looked at Kierse as if he'd forgotten he was there, and then suddenly been reminded. "Oh shit, man I'm sorry!" he said to his neglected comrade. Turning to Avery, he said, "Ave, this is Corporal Dilan Kierse." Turning to Kierse, he gestured to Avery and said, "Kierse, this is one of my old boys from back home, Avery Azen."

Avery made a show of giving a long, slow nod and greeting him with a polite, "Sir."

Kierse watched this display, and then stuck his hand out with a lopsided grin, saying, "Avery."

Avery stared, almost suspiciously, at the offered hand, and then burst out laughing. He took Kierse's hand, and shook it hard. "Cool, man, cool." Turning to Korwin, he said, "So what brings you over here, and what unit you with?"

Korwin, finally redirected back on task, said, "Actually, I'm looking for a Private..." He looked over at Kierse, searching for a name. Kierse mouthed the young soldier's name, and Korwin said, "Haslin. Private Haslin."

Avery nodded his head and pointed up towards the front of the tent, to a small group of soldiers sitting in a circle on the sandy floor, jumpsuit's pushed down to their wastes, rolling a set of five dice and loudly calling out numbers. "The scrawny human guy with the blond hair, the one with the dice right now."

Korwin said, "Thanks Ave. 3rd platoon, next door on the left. Stop by when you get time." and they repeated the handshake they'd performed earlier. Korwin nudged Kierse with his elbow, and said, "Let's go check this kid out." Korwin held back a laugh at the idea of him, the youngest of the company; possibly the battalion, or even the regiment, calling someone kid. Still, he had no experience in combat, and to the veterans of Krayt Company, combat age meant a whole lot more than chronological age.

Korwin approached the small group, and waited until Private Haslin's turn had passed before announcing himself. "Private Haslin?" he queried, his gaze on the man that Avery had pointed out.

The man looked over his shoulder, and, seeing the corporal's stripes on both Kierse's and Korwin's jumpsuits, stood and saluted. "Yes sir. Something I can do for you?"

Korwin and Kierse returned Haslin's salute, and Korwin said, "I'm Corporal Nalan, and this is Corporal Kierse. Kierse here," he waved his hand in Kierse's direction, "said he heard you telling Corven that you could shoot the eyes out of a womprat at four hundred yards, no scope." He folded his arms across his chest and cocked his head to the side. "That true?"

Haslin nodded his head, no sign of humility apparent in his body language. "I'll bet on it."

"Well, my friend and I are putting together a five person team for a special kind of duty. We need a sharpshooter, and Kierse brought your name up."

Haslin raised an eyebrow, and asked, "What's it all about?"

"We'll be conducting long range patrols, usually behind enemy lines, in order to gather intelligence, gain body count, and recon physical terrain features and enemy positions for future operations in the area. We did this sort of thing for a little while on Gnazt, and High Command is making it permanent in every company." Korwin replied, trying not to sound too excited. He thought the idea was a hell of a lot better than wandering around in the desert with hundreds of other troops, waiting to get bombed.

Haslin thought about it for only a moment, and then said, "No, that's okay. Sounds a little risky to me."

Korwin watched as he turned around and went back to the game. He was momentarily disappointed, when a thought came to him. He grinned slyly, and said, "Tell you what...I'll take your bet."

Haslin looked at him over his shoulder, his expression one of bewilderment. "Bet?"

"You said you'd bet on being able to shot a womprat's eye out at four hundred with no scope." Korwin said. When Haslin nodded slowly, Korwin said, "I'll take it."

Haslin appeared to mull it over for several long seconds, before he finally said, "Okay."

Korwin said, "Here's terms. If I win, you take some sniper training, join my squad. If you win..."

"_When_ I win, I want that blaster pistol you've got." Haslin interjected, pointing at Korwin's blaster, which never left his side anymore.

The weapon was inconsequential in the long run. He could always get another. He nodded his agreement. "They're all over the fucking place just out in the dunes. Let's go."

"What, now?" Haslin asked, clearly caught off guard.

"Got anything better to do?" Korwin asked.

"Well, I mean, I guess not. I'm kind of in the middle of a game though." He said.

Korwin looked at Haslin's sizeable pile of winnings, and said to the other players, "You all wouldn't mind if Private Haslin here sat out a few rounds, would you?" A chorus of negatives came from the group of gamblers, and Korwin said, "There, you see, Private? Nothing better to do after all."

Sighing resignedly, Haslin picked up his winnings, and stuffed them in his cargo pockets. He followed Korwin and Kierse out of the tent, grabbing his blaster rifle as he went, and off towards the perimeter. Tatoo I and Tatoo II were both still fairly high in the sky, and the heat was intense. Korwin unzipped his jumpsuit to his waist, and pushed it down. Kierse did likewise.

Korwin led them to the top of the same dune that he'd been to earlier with his friends. He pointed out at the endless golden sands, to the tiny quadrupedal forms off in the distance. "Don't know if they're womprats, but they have four legs. You can find the skull on one of those, and pop it's eyepiece, you can have it." He said, as he drew his blaster pistol. "Have at it." He raised his binoculars, which he'd been holding the entire time, to his eyes. He pressed a button on the binoculars, and the picture zoomed in rapidly, filling his vision with a pack of what turned out to be large reptiles.

As Haslin settled into a prone position and began sighting down the barrel of his blaster rifle, he asked Korwin, "How old are you sir? If you don't mind me asking."

"Seventeen." Replied Korwin, without taking his eyes off the big lizards. "Why?"

"Just wondering, sir." Haslin was silent after that, and after almost a minute, he fired one shot. Korwin tracked the shot until he couldn't see the red bolt anymore, and waited for several seconds. Then he saw one of the lizards rear up, it's front legs flailing wildly, before it charged further into the desert. He heard Haslin mutter, "Shit." under his breath, and grinned triumphantly.

"Welcome to the team, Private." Kierse said, a shit-eating grin on his face, as Korwin wordlessly lowered his electrobinoculars and holstered his pistol.

"Thanks." Came Haslin's muttered reply.

* * *

"That's it for now." Korwin said, his face tight, his body tense. "I'll see you again after lunch?" He asked, trying to sound casual. 

Laina nodded her head, and saved the information on her datapad, before shutting it down. "That's fine, Mr. Nalan. We'll see you when you get back." As he walked out the door, Laina sighed. She had received a comm this morning, as she was getting ready for the interview. She had been very surprised to find Korwin's wife on the other end.

Mrs. Nalan had warned her that the next day or two would likely be very tense, and that she'd do best to avoid questioning, or prompting, Korwin during the Mos Espa interviews. Laina had suffered tragedies of much smaller magnitudes than combat could bring in her short lifetime, and knew that it was best not to ask why. So she hadn't.

No one else in the room spoke, as they pulled out packed lunches to eat while they waited for Korwin to return. Laina sighed, and decided that she'd best eat her own lunch. It would be a long afternoon.


	11. Soldier 10

C'mon folks. I've gotten at least a few hits. Even if you think it sucks, put up a review and tell me why. It might just lead to the improvement of the story. So good or bad, please post reviews, otherwise I have no idea what you think.

* * *

The room remainedstrangely silent when Korwin returned, and once again, there were no questions. He merely took his seat, took a sip of his water, and began speaking. "I was on the firing range a couple of weeks later, which was really just the flattest stretch of sand we could find on any given day...anyways, I was watching Corven work with Haslin and taking notes, when Borlin approached me."

"Nalan, I need to speak with you if you have a moment." Borlin said, squinting his eyes against the brightness of Tatooine's early morning.

Korwin glanced at Haslin and Corven, and then turned to Borlin. "Sir." He said, and fell in alongside Borlin, as the Captain turned towards the center of camp.

Borlin set a leisurely pace, strolling unconcernedly along. After what must have been almost a minute of silence, Korwin was beginning to get irritated, when Borlin said, "I've heard good things about how Jenrol is progressing in his medic's training."

Korwin said, "He's doing good. Haslin is pretty much ready, although I'd like to get him a sporting blaster rifle like Corven's, instead of the modified E-33. Corven said it would add accuracy over greater distance, and better stopping power. He was already a crack shot though, and he's been hunting on Dantooine his entire life. I'm not worried about him."

"What _are_ you worried about?" Borlin asked, stopping.

Korwin stopped as well, and faced his CO. Folding his arms across his chest, he cocked his head to the side, and bluntly stated, "Lack of intelligence for my first patrols. We don't have complete control over the skies yet, and I still ain't gotten any aerial recon images. I only have the Mos Espa city archive maps of the wastes, and nothing on the dune sea. How the sand shifts, where their troops are, I don't have that." Korwin frowned, and toed the sand absentmindedly. "I just don't feel good about it."

Borlin sighed, and put a hand on Korwin's shoulder. "I wish I could help you out, but I have no control over that." Letting his hand fall back to his side, he said, "Meantime, I am going to need you guys soon."

"How soon?" Korwin asked.

"Two nights from tonight." Borlin said, his face neutral.

Korwin was shocked, to say the least. He knew that his team was nearing readiness, and their stealth, camouflage, and field tactics training were going well, even if it was tough work; but Jenrol still wasn't ready to handle full-time medic duties. He voiced his opinion.

"Sir, when I said Jenrol was doing good, I didn't mean to say he was ready yet. Sgt. Cormor says he's still got about a week or two to go before he'd give him the okay to perform any major life-saving efforts in the field. Even then, he'll still need work between missions for a while."

Borlin's mouth formed itself into a thin line, and he said, "Unfortunately, I can't wait that long. Division Command is squeezing Regimental Command, who is squeezing Battalion command, who is squeezing me. They want to mount an operation in the wastes, make a push for Mos Eisley, try and bail out our guys there, but without good reconnaissance and reliable front-line intelligence, we can't do that."

"I thought we were holding up in Eisley." Korwin said.

Borlin said, "Don't you worry about that right now. Info is coming down the wire as we speak, and there will be a briefing on the big op when the time is appropriate. The information you gain on your recon patrol will be included. There will be other patrols, run by yours and several other company's recon squads, before the actual push begins. We'll be prepared when the time comes. But that means you have to get your feet wet a little early, got it?"

Korwin had been holding his breath as Borlin cut off any avenue for argument. He was going to have to go. He blew the breath out hard, and and unfolded his arms, his chin hitting his chest. He looked off in the direction of the jundland wastes, through which lay Mos Eisley, and eventually Anchorhead, and said, "Alright, I'll get my guys together, and let them know."

Borlin shook his head and said, "Later. You've got something to do first."

Korwin raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"

Borlin's expression wavered on the fine line between compassion and nonchalance, but his voice was gentle. "Sorry kid, you're on DBP." Borlin turned and walked away, leaving Korwin standing by himself, a sick feeling in his stomach. _Asshole._ Thought Korwin peevishly. _Could have fucking told me about the patrol later. Now I've gotta do DBP with this shit on my mind._

Korwin went to his tent, and geared up as if going on regular combat patrol. They always did that, even though external security around the city was fairly tight. You just never knew. The DBP mustering point was always the same. At any given time, there were ten DBP's roving throughMos Espa,made up of four troops each.

They moved slowly through the fallen rubble and scanned it with small bioscanners, looking for survivors. Of course, by now they were moving into bombed out homes, the majority of the fallen debris on the street having been cleared away.

Things had been looking better as far as the patrols went, when the bodies on the streets starting thinning out. But once they'd cleared enough wreckage to get into people's homes, it had become even worse. Entire families were found in various stages of dismemberment and decomposition.

The Imps bombing had wreaked havoc on the city of Mos Espa, and Korwin couldn't help but be angered by it. If this was what the Imperial's were; murderers of unarmed men, women, and children, then Korwin was doing exactly what he should be doing; killing them.

Finished gearing up, he made his way to the mustering point. Avery was there, his face grim, and Kreth was there as well. The fourth member of the DBP was Private Jenna Melara, whom he knew mostly from the initial capture of Mos Espa. Kreth looked Korwin up and down, and asked, "You ready?"

He nodded his head, his expression tight. "Let's move out."

As a Corporal, Korwin was the ranking soldier in the DBP, so he'd be in charge. Melara held the sensory device in her hands, her rifle slung over her right shoulder. Korwin said, "Prime the sensor, and wait for my order." Once she had done so, he led them to the northwest section of town, one of the few remaining areas that had uncleared houses. He led them through the first three, and found them thankfully empty.

When they came to fourth house, Korwin began getting that sick feeling again. He always felt this way before he found a body. Like he knew what was coming. He came to the door of the home, which was still intact, and looked to be on it's tracks. The domed roof of the two story structure was completely caved in, and Korwin made note of the second option for entry, should the doorway be blocked by heavy debris.

He turned to Avery, and said, "Open it up." Avery came forward, and attached a small strip of foil-like material to the door's edge, near where the locking mechanism was. He then licked his index finger and ran it lightly down the strip quickly, jerking his finger back as soon as he was done. The material began glowing white hot, and then small sparks began sizzling off of the metal, falling to the ground and extinguishing themselves.

Avery waited thirty seconds after the burning stopped, then slipped his fingers in the small slot left by the burning strip. Feeling around, he found the magnetic trigger for the door. He pulled a tiny metal disc out of one of the utility pockets on his combat harness and attached it to the end of the magnet. The door slid open. Avery stepped out of the way to allow Korwin inside.

Korwin stepped in, and was immediately assaulted by the thick, cloying stench of death. He wrinkled his nose, but didn't react otherwise. He had long since overcome the urge to retch at the familiar smell, though that made it no less unpleasant.

He walked slowly to the edge of the rubble. No piece was too large that the four of them together couldn't move it. It was piled some eight feet high in places, and spread out over most of the first floor. The dwelling was not large, with only one room downstairs, doubling as a family room and kitchen, and most likely two small bedrooms and a 'fresher unit had been upstairs.

Korwin's eyes swept over the surface of the rubble, and he breathed out hard through his nose when his gaze came to rest on a blackened, slime-covered arm sticking out of the rubble. The flesh was in an advanced state of decomposition, and was literally liquified. He watched as a large glob of sticky, nasty fluid oozed in a long line off of the arm, and onto a stone below. Korwin turned to his teammates and waved them in. "We've got at least one. Time to start digging."

Sifting through the rubble, they found the remains of three people. The arm was attached to a body that was equally damaged, the rotting having made the features unrecognizable. The size was roughly that of a teenage human, though whether it was male or female, he could not tell. The other two were bigger. One was much larger, and sported the remains of a rust-colored beard. The third was only slightly larger than the first, and was wearing a dress soaked through with rotted, liquid flesh. The first two wore the rough-spun, off-white pants and tunic that were most common on Tatooine.

When Korwin decided they'd had enough, as he was fairly certain there were no more bodies in the house, he ordered them out. He tried not to think of the family inside, of what they were doing when they died. After walking across the street to get away from the smell emanating from the house's now open doorway, Korwin turned to Kreth and said, "Comm the morgue unit; tell them we've got three."

As Kreth carried out his order, Korwin looked over at Melara. She had a strong constitution for a new girl, but she still looked a little green around the gills. He looked over at Avery, and said, "Ave, I want you to go back to camp, report to your platoon Sergeant." Turning his head to Melara, he said, "Melara, you too." They both nodded gratefully and headed off in the direction of camp. Kreth got off the comm a moment later, and said, "Nalan? Why'd you send them back. It's against protocol to be out here without at least four of us."

Korwin ignored her statement, and said, as if she hadn't spoken, "We're going out tomorrow night."

"What?" Kreth asked. "What do you mean?"

Korwin answered, "Borlin needs us to go out on recon towards the wastes tomorrw."

"Jenrol isn't ready yet." Kreth said, concerned.

Korwin shrugged, and held his hands up in a gesture of resignation, "That's what I told him, but we're still going. Borlin will brief me, I'll brief you guys. We'll let the others know when we get back to camp."

Kreth shook her head, and said, "Alright then."

They sat in silence while they waited for the morgue unit to arrive, and then waited with them while they catalogued the bodies, bagged them, or what they could of them, and removed them from the premises. They walked back to camp with the morgue unit, and then headed to their own tent. Kreth went straight to her cot, took off her gear and her jumpsuit, leaving her in her tank top and underwear, and slipped beneath the covers.

At first, it had been awkward with her in the tent, as everyone else in third platoon was male. But after fighting alongside her for so long, only the replacements looked at her with anything approaching sexual interest. To them, she was still an exotic looking, beautiful woman. To the vets, she was the same as them. A professional life-taker who was paid a monthly stipend by the Alliance High Command to go into the field, and kill Imps.

They hadn't been doing that lately, but who cared. They'd be doing plenty soon enough, Korwin knew. He watched, amazed, as Kreth closed her eyes, and almost instantly began snoring lightly. She could fall asleep faster than anyone he knew.

He laughed quietly to himself, and then pulled his datapad from underneath his cot. He turned it on, and began writing up the report of their search. When he was finished, he sent it to Captain Borlin, and Division Command HQ, which was still in space.

Apparently, the battle for the void around Tatooine was going well for the Alliance, and they were close to having space superiority established. But they knew that the Imps had several elite fighter wings in two different bases somewhere in the Jundland Wastes.

Korwin put his datapad down, and pulled a ration bar from his pack. He ate it quickly, and washed it down with a couple swallows from his canteen. Stripping off his jumpsuit, he got under the sheets on his cot, and slowly dozed off.

* * *

"That evening, and the next two days, were spent in briefings and live rehearsal in full gear for the mission. We were to be taken in by the black box, and dropped about a quarter mile from the edge of the wastes. Our packs were loaded with about forty pounds of stuff each.

"Back in the clone wars, and even before that, our packs would have been much heavier. But everything was designed so lightweight by this point...anyway, Jenrol had all his medical supplies, Kierse had been training in demolitions, and had several different types of anti-personnel mines, and plasma explosives."

He paused and took a long drink from his water, trying to center his thoughts. Talking about the DBP had been hard. Losing friends was tough, but the senseless slaughter of innocents had always been very difficult for him to deal with, especially the children. During the patrols, he'd always pushed his emotions to the back of his mind, ignored them and done his duty. Now, recounting the events, it was much harder to do so.

Laina waited patiently, her eyes on Korwin, ready for his next words. "The patrol was going to be for three days, unless we requested emergency extraction. Orders were to avoid contact if possible until we'd been out at least two days and gathered some good intel. They wanted major terrain features mapped on the datapad, troop counts and enemy positions, and possible bottlenecks and ambush points identified. After the briefing, we headed back to the tent to get ready..."

* * *

Korwin finished taping up, put on his pack, and jumped up and down. Hearing no jingling, clicking, clacking, or clanking, he took off his pack and put his tape in one of the side pouches. Zipping it tightly, he repeated the jump test, and found it satisfactory. He then applied his greasepaint, which was now tan and dark brown instead of green and black.

Deciding that safe was better than sorry, he rubbed some of the tan greasepaint into his cornrows at various places, creating a pattern similar to the one on his face. He then pulled his bush hat on low. After that, he rechecked his weapons for the fifth time that day. They had test-fired them that morning to ensure proper functionality, just before their final 'dress rehearsal', as Borlin called them. Captain Borlin had instated all of these new pre-mission protocols for safety, he said.

Korwin didn't mind, and it did make him feel a little safer. When the rest of the group was finished getting ready, Korwin walked through the tent flap, and into the beautiful, crimson painted landscape that was Tatooine at late sunset. His jumpsuit was new, and lacked it's normal rank insignia, unit patches, and name tag, as did everyone else's.

Their ID tags were worn under their jumpsuit's, and were taped completely to avoid jingle and shine, should they fall out from the shirt. Instead of wearing them on a chain like other troops, the recon squad had been given black leather cords to put theirs on.

Eight grenades adorned Korwin's combat harness, and six full blaster paks as well. A full blaster pak was taped upside down to the one that was currently loaded and primed in his rifle. In his pack, he carried a couple of laser triggered perimeter mines and a small radar device that they would set up at a waypoint that he designated, as well as a two hundred foot length of fiberchord, five days worth of ration bars and water, and another six blaster paks.

Korwin was worried about his lack of knowledge of the area. They'd be going in almost completely blind, sneaking through the canyons and ravines and rocky valleys of the Jundland wastes without knowing what they could run into. Another part of him though, the seventeen year old boy who'd been stuck in the slums of Celka City on Juno IV his whole life, was excited at the prospect of such an adventure.

As they walked to the landing area, near the center of camp, Korwin was acutely aware of the many stares they were receiving from the other troops. Troops had been landing near Mos Espa in continuous waves since the bombing, and there were now thousands of combat soldiers in the enormous military encampment, not to mention the various other non-combat units.

Most of them were newly trained, hadn't seen much combat, if any. The few vets that they passed, from Gnazt, and those from other planets where recon had been employed, simply gave a respectful nod, or waved to them as they passed. The new troops simply stared at the five recon soldiers who made almost no sound as they walked past, and whose skin was painted in different, unique patterns of the same brown and sand colors. They saw the bush hats, different from the helmets they wore, and recognized that they were not looking at run-of-the-mill infantry grunts.

They reached the so-called 'black box', and everyone hopped inside, Korwin boarding last and taking his customary place sitting on the edge with his legs hanging out. The box lifted off, turned in the direction of the wastes, which weren't terribly far off, and sped away. The terrain on Tatooine, Korwin noted idly, as it whizzed by far beneath his feet, was even more monotonous than that of Gnazt.

At least on Gnazt there had been the occasional clump of basa trees to break up the landscape. Here, there was nothing but sand. Lots and lots of sand. In the distance, Korwin could just make out the shape of a great plateau, silhouetted magnificently in the rapidly fading crimson light.

The box descended quickly when it reached their LZ, and the small recon unit jumped to the ground, and made for the cover of a large sand dune. They raced up the backside of it, and then they each fell prone near the top. Korwin crawled on his belly up to the top of the dune.

He pulled his electrobinoculars out of his pack, and put them to his eyes. The great plateau he'd seen was less than a mile away now, and he could see the wide canyon that ran through it. That was to be their starting point then.

He couldn't see any way to the top of the plateau from here, short of climbing the sheer rock walls. While they had fiberchord, and and Haslin and Kreth had some climbing equipment in their field packs, it wasn't necessary at this point. He couldn't see any signs of Imp checkpoints, or any defensive positions, but that did nothing to ease the tension that was beginning to creep up on him.

When he went back to his squad, he said, "No Imps in sight, but I'm sure they're in there. This is the only viable route to Mos Eisley and Anchorhead from Mos Epsa, and they know that. Once we get over the top of this dune, I want no verbal communication for the remainder of the operation. From now on in the field, we operate in complete silence. What we can't say in hand signals, we'll write down on paper pads and pass around. Got it?"

Everyone nodded, as if his order was already in effect. Feeling pleased with this, he gave the signal to move out. As assistant team leader, Kreth took point. That was how Korwin liked it. He had great instincts, but hers were better. He came after Kreth, with Jenrol behind him, then Haslin with his new sporting blaster rifle, and finally Kierse acting as the rear guard, or as he'd put it: "The six man."

Despite being less than a mile from their designated patrol area, it took over an hour to get there. Korwin made sure they moved very slowly over the open sand. When they finally got within reach of the canyon mouth the terrain suddenly changed from soft, fine golden sand, to hard packed, reddish-brown dirt and rock. Korwin surveyed the area, and saw a large boulder that left only a couple feet between itself and the canyon wall. He signaled for Kreth to lead them in that direction.

When they were settled, hidden behind the boulder, Korwin began picking up small rocks, and a few slightly larger ones, and placing them on various areas of his pack. He removed his bush hat and dusted most of his hair with the rust-colored dirt, and parts of his face and arms, before replacing his hat. The dirt stuck to the greasepaint nicely, and he saw that his comrades were doing the same.

Literally feeling like part of the land now, Korwin allowed himself a thin smile, making sure not to show his teeth. Borlin had told him a story once, about a mission he'd run in the Clone Wars. His recon unit had been scouting enemy positions and counting troop strength for nearly four days. Their camo was good, and they'd made it a good distance undetected. Then one night, as they were sitting at the edge of a forest, watching a long column of CIS droids go by, one of them grinned. The moonlight flashed on his white teeth, and a droid sniper had put a bolt through his face.

When everyone had finished with their camo, Korwin signaled for Kreth to move out. She started off, and the rest of the squad followed. They picked their way carefully over the rough, rocky terrain, staying near the walls and overhangs, taking great care not to make any sound. They hadn't gone far when Kreth held her hand up to stop. They did so, and she motioned for them to be still.

The squad of recon troops flattened themselves on the ground, and they melted into the landscape, their camouflage making them invisible to the Imperial Stormtroopers. These weren't just regulars either. These were sandtroopers, elite stormtroopers who were specially trained for desert warfare.

Korwin watched them pass, his eyes narrow, so as not to expose the whites too much. His first instinct was to shoot, but he stomped it down viciously, knowing that do so would likely mean death not long after. His instincts served him well, as the final count was thirty Imps. Thirty to five wasn't good numbers.

After the Imps had passed, the small group of rebels remained perfectly still for almost fifteen minutes. Then, ever so slowly, Korwin began to rise back into a crouching position. His muscles strained against the weight of his pack, but he was young and strong, and kept his quiet as he rose steadily. The rest of the squad followed him to their feet.

Korwin removed a small, personal datapad from one of his jumpsuit cargo pockets. He checked his wrist chronometer and then, keeping the datapad screen covered with his body, he jotted down the number of troops, type of them, and time and place they'd been sighted. After sending the information directly to Borlin's computer, he deactivated the datapad, and replaced it. They sat still for another five minutes, and then Korwin gave the signal to move out.

They continued on in this manner for the remainder of the night, encountering various enemy patrols as they made their way deeper into Imperial controlled territory. Each time, they stopped and remained still, letting the Imps bypass their hidden positions unmolested. Korwin would then make his notes and send them to HQ. He also kept track of the coordinates of possible ambush points that the Imps could use during the rebel assault, as well as making note of any terrain features that stood out.

When at last Tatoo I began to sidle languidly into the early morning sky, Korwin called a halt to the night's operations. They found a small cave tucked deep under an overhanging canyon wall, and set up a defensive position near the edge of the overhang. Sleeping in shifts, they waited out the daylight, with whomever was on watch sending updated reports to HQ every half-hour. When night fell again, Korwin passed a paper note to his comrades that read:

**FOUR AND A HALF THEN BACK**

They crawled to the edge of the low overhang and peered out cautiously. Korwin ordered them back from the edge, and there they waited for five minutes. When nothing showed itself, beyond a large womprat that failed to notice them, they slowly crept into the canyon. Korwin gave the sign to move out, and Kreth headed off on point, with the rest of them following behind in single file.

As they stole way into the darkness, Korwin steeled himself for another long, tense night.

"That night passed the same as the first, just checking on troop numbers and placements. Probably about three and a half hours in, we came upon a heavily guarded checkpoint. There were two turbolaser emplacements, one on each canyon wall. Additionally, there was a fortified guardhouse, with at least ten sandtroopers outside. We still had another hours worth of time to continue, but I decided to turn back there, after making my report." Korwin took a long, slow drink from his water, and set the now empty glass on the table next to his chair.

Rubbing his chin for a moment, he said, "The third night, after we got moving again, we were feeling pretty good about ourselves. We had sighted numerous enemy troops, but had not made contact. Some of them had passed within a couple feet of us but were completely unaware of our presence. When we reached the edge of the canyon, we hightailed it to the LZ and called for extraction. We'd been sitting there for probably two minutes, when Haslin spots this group of Imps coming out of the canyon.

"Now, we'd been itching to vape some of these guys since we ran across that first big patrol. Problem was, we were of range for conventional blasters. Haslin though, he was practically begging me to let him take a shot."

Haslin looked at Korwin pleadingly, his eyes large, as he jerked his head at the squad of Imps that was brazenly walking upright over the desert. Of course, it was Imp territory, so they weren't being that brazen at all.

Korwin checked his wrist chrono. The box would be there soon, and the enemy squad was really too far away to get to them in time. He thought about it for a moment, and then nodded his assent.

Haslin grinned, and went into a prone position on top of the dune. As he brought the Imps into his sights, Korwin pulled out his electrobinoculars and focused them on the squad of Imps that was now moving into the desert at an oblique angle from the rebels. Haslin's sporting blaster rifle barked once, and Korwin watched as the bolt took one of the sandtroopers in the head.

Haslin had dropped a second, and a third before the Imps realized that the three guys bringing up the rear weren't there. They dropped to the ground, and began looking around frantically, trying to find the sniper. They were in a flat area though, and Haslin had the advantage of not only camouflage, but elevation.

Korwin's ears perked at the whispery sound of the black box approaching. Nudging Haslin in the leg, he gave the signal to fire at will. Haslin nodded with obvious satisfaction. Korwin watched the helpless sandtroopers break and run for the canyon as four more went down, each the result of a well-timed headshot. The box touched down just as the Imps reached the canyon, and Korwin nudged Haslin again. He jerked his thumb toward the box, and watched as his squad hopped to.

Haslin jumped up, grabbed his pack, and ran for the box, the rest of the squad on his heels. Korwin boarded last, and as the box lifted off, he threw his head back and screamed wordlessly at the top of his lungs. He was fairly overflowing with adrenaline after having accomplished their dangerous mission, and happy to be able to use his voice after three days of silence.

As the box approached the rebel base of operations, he grinned and looked at Kierse. "How's that for a fucking rush?"

Kierse's deadpan reply was, "Even better that Gnazt."

Korwin laughed at his friend, and when the box touched down, he hopped off of it, feeling exhausted and exhilarated all at once. Borlin was waiting for them at the landing pad, and approached them as the box's engines shut down. "I'll escort you all to the Battalion CP. They're going to want to debrief with all of you each time you complete a mission."

Korwin nodded his assent, and said, "Yes sir." He fell in line with his CO, and the rest of his patrol did likewise. He couldn't wait until the debriefing was over, so that he could take a sonic shower, and fall asleep on his nice, soft (softer than the canyon floor, anyway) cot.

As the last remaining strains of adrenaline left his body, he felt an overwhelming exhaustion replace it. It was a familiar feeling, one he got every time he survived another battle. Resolving not to let it sink in too deeply until after he'd debriefed, he took a deep breath of the warm night air, and followed Borlin back to the Battalion Command Post.

* * *

"We debriefed for almost two hours with Colonel Nersch, the Battalion CO, and an officer from Alliance Intelligence, and then got cleaned up and caught some z's." Korwin relaxed visibly, his body exhibiting a certain amount of physical tension during the recounting of his first _official_ recon patrol.

Laina sensed an easing in his manner, and had a feeling that the worst of the Mos Espa interviews were over. Deciding to pose a harmless question, she asked, "After that first patrol, were you convinced of your squad's readiness for the field?"

He shrugged. "I never thought that we'd do badly on the patrol itself. I was more worried about Jenrol's life-saving skills, should it have come to that." He paused, and then offered a small smile, more a twitch of the lips than anything else. "Of course, it didn't."

"Did this represent a permanent shift in your duties with the Army, or were you still considered part of the regular infantry?" Queried Laina, as she crossed her legs and leaned back in her seat.

"Very shortly after that, I was informed by Borlin that the recon squads had become permanent, under the designation LRIS, or Long Range Intelligence Squads. A bunch of regular infantry guys started calling us Larry's, because of the acronym." He chuckled. "Not very original of them. Could have called us the phantom's or something." His expression turned to one of mock disappointment, and he shook his head.

"Anyways, after that we were pretty much just recon. Eventually, we were all put in one big recon company...you know, all the recon units in the battalion...and they started training guys specifically to come to our units. In the beginning though, for the first year or so on Tatooine, our parent units were individual companies. We just pulled our guys from the best and the brightest of the infantry. But that'll all come later. We'll get there."

Laina smiled at the obvious return of his good humor. "Well, I suppose we've covered quite a bit of ground today, haven't we?"

"I suppose we have. Shall we wait to cover more until tomorrow then?" Korwin asked, certain he looked as tired as he felt.

Laina nodded her head, and stood up as he did. "See you then, Mr. Nalan."

Korwin flashed a brief smile, waved to the crew, and left the room.

Laina didn't say anything this time. They knew what to do. She just packed up her belongings, and headed home for the night.


	12. Soldier 11

Please...I beg of you. Take one minute out of your busy schedule to review this story. I know it seems like I'm asking a lot. And maybe I should feel guilty for being so demanding, but...it sure doesn't seem like a lot of effort compared to the hours and days it's taken me to write it.

Seriously though.

* * *

Korwin sat in his chair, his hands folded in his lap, waiting for Laina to begin the day's interviews. She smiled warmly at him, and said, "Good morning. Are we ready to begin?"

The corners of his mouth curled up in a small smile, and he said, "I believe we are." He cleared his throat, and then said, "For the next six weeks, recon was all over that canyon. We'd be extracting and somewhere else in the canyon or on the plateaus, another recon squad would be dropped to work further in. We were literally constructing a piece by piece mock up of this canyon and it's defenses."

Laina tilted her head to the side, and her hairless violet brows furrowed quizically. "Why not use the Navy's fighters for reconnaissance purposes, instead of risking men on the ground?"

Korwin thought for a moment on how to answer the question, and then said, "Well, really the problem with that, is that there were so many overhangs, crags, caves and what not that the aerial recon just couldn't see. And at the start, they would have been blown out of the sky before they got anything meaningful. The Imps still had pretty tight control in atmosphere. The only place that was really well patrolled by the Alliance was around Mos Espa, and the desert immediately surrounding. They stayed away from the wastes. Of course, every once in a while you'd get to see a dogfight, and those were always amazing. But not often."

"In light of that, how was the Alliance able to keep up the constant ground reconnaissance without the Imperial's becoming aware?"

Korwin shrugged. "Honestly, I would say that it was because of the consummate skill of the individuals involved. No one was there by force, the recon units were all voluntary duty. You wanted to be doing what you were doing, you know? So you took care to make sure you were good at it. Plus, we really only operated at night. Daytime was for resting. Nighttime was where we did our best work. The Imps...they don't work like that. They don't think like we do. Not unless they're commando's. Even Sandtroopers aren't properly trained in camouflage and guerilla warfare. They just shoot better, and fight smarter. That's what makes them so-called _elites._"

Laina nodded her head and took down a couple notes on her datapad. Looking back up, she said, "Now you mentioned at the beginning of the Tatooine interviews that the sandpeople became a problem. When did that happen, and how?"

Korwin licked his lips, and looked up at the ceiling. He took a deep breath, and gathered his thoughts, and said, "My squad made first contact with them, and we had an incident in camp shortly after that. The first time we made contact, we were flying back to camp in a black box shortly after a successful patrol, when we heard this funny sound...this little metallic _plunk._" He licked his lips again and unclasped his hands, beginning to gesticulate along with the story.

"I had my legs dangling, and a couple seconds after that first sound, we hear another, and then I feel something hit my left calf. It burned like hell, and I figured I'd been shot, so my first thought was that maybe there were stormtroopers down there." He took a sip of his water and set the glass down gently. "None in sight though. All of a sudden, there's this loud _bang_ from the left engine, and the thing starts belching out this nasty-looking smoke and fire. Next second after that, Kreth is wearing the pilot's brains, and the co-pilot takes a shot through the torso. The box jolted hard, and started spinning around, like some insane amusement park ride. Next thing I knew, I was airborne, and all I could see was the ground rushing up at me."

He held his right hand up high, and brought it down to visually demonstrate his fall. "We were about thirty feet off the ground, and I flew out a good ways, and then started down at an angle, like this. When I hit, I hit on the downward incline of a sand dune, and must have rolled a good hundred feet down the thing."

"Were you badly hurt?" Laina queried.

"Well, aside from my leg not really, and even then I had no idea how bad it was. But I was pretty stunned for a minute there..."

* * *

Korwin lay on his back, trying desperately to pull air into severely deflated lungs. His ears were ringing from the explosion of the engine, but he nevertheless heard the thunderous crash of the black box hitting the ground hard a couple hundred yards away. His back hurt, and his right shoulder throbbed fiercely. He could feel what he knew was blood soaking through the lower left leg of his jumpsuit, and knew it hadn't been a blaster bolt that had hit him. He knew from experience that there would be no more than a trickle of blood if it had. He also knew that he had to find out if his squad had survived the crash.

Struggling to his feet, he finally found his breath, and took in deep, gasping breaths. He knew that his pack would do nothing but slow him down now, so he let it fall to the ground. When he felt that he could move again, he began running as fast as he could over the deep, soft sand towards the sound of the crash.

As he crested the dune that he'd landed on, he could see the burning engine of the box some distance away, and bolts of red energy streaking into the darkness around it. The odd, percussive _boom_ of slugthrowers was coming from all around, and Korwin could hear them hitting the box. It sounded to him like an odd combination of miniature explosions and handfuls gravel being hurled at a thin durasteel wall. He shook off the thought and continued running

Suddenly, a shower of sand erupted in front of him, accompanied by a loud braying sound. Korwin put the brakes on, and slid to a halt in front of the towering sandperson just as the creature brought it's gaffi stick down at Korwin's head. Korwin raised his blaster rifle to block it, and was nearly pushed to his knees by the force of the blow. Korwin tried to back up and bring the barrel of the rifle to bear on the sandperson, but the creature struck his rifle hard, sending it flying from his hand. He whipped his blaster pistol out, but the thing knocked that away too.

As the sandperson drew back to attack again, Korwin loosed a guttural roar and dove at the thing. He felt his shoulder impact hard in it's midsection, and they hit the ground violently. As the sandperson's back struck the ground, it used the momentum of the fall to flip Korwin off of itself. Korwin rolled to his feet and his right hand reached to the small of his back, unsheathing his vibrodagger and activating it. It hummed to life in his hand, and a cold smile passed over his face. The sandperson tumbled a few more feet and began rising, but Korwin was quicker.

As it gained it's knees, Korwin dashed forward. The sandperson frantically thrust it's gaffi stick out in front of it, hoping to ward off the attack, but Korwin quickly juked left and continued his forward momentum. As he passed the kneeling sandperson, he drew his arm back and slashed hard across the sandperson's throat, nearly severing it's head.

A jet of blood spattered hotly across his hand and face, and he watched dispassionately as the corpse toppled over. He wiped his blade clean on the hem of the sandperson's robe, sheathed it, and then dashed over to where his rifle and blaster pistol lay and picked them up. He holstered his pistol, and began rushing towards the black box again.

As he grew closer, he could see the moonlight illuminating a large force of sandpeople that were surrounding the box. His breath caught in his throat at the sight of all of his squad members, huddled inside the cover offered by the fallen box, firing desperately at the encroaching circle of tusken raiders. Korwin removed a frag grenade from his harness, primed it, and hurled it at a group of sandpeople. The hail of shrapnel loosed by the explosion ripped through the unarmored bodies of the sandpeople, sending several of them to their deaths. They didn't seem to realize that the attack had come from behind, and all of them continued firing at the downed box.

Korwin heard the engine wash of approaching boxes then, and turned his head to look. Eight of them were coming in from the direction of base camp. He dropped to the ground as the sandpeople also turned to see what the source of the noise was. A number of sandpeople opened fire on the arriving boxes, and he saw two door gunners slump in their harnesses as they passed over. None of them seemed to have spotted him though.

The Alliance boxes landed on the other side of the black box from Korwin and regular infantrymen began jumping out and returning the sandpeople's fire. Korwin went unnoticed by Alliance troops and sandpeople alike as he crouched low to the ground and crept closer and closer to the enemy. He was hoping to get by the sandpeople unseen, at least until he could get the attention of the other Alliance troops.

He watched as Kreth, Jenrol, Haslin and Kierse rolled out of the black box and sprinted through a small gap in the circle of sandpeople, making for the relative safety of the eight boxes sitting on the sands. He could see the infantrymen retreating back to the boxes as well, keeping up a steady stream of covering fire for the recon troops they were bailing out. He realized then, that they were leaving. The thought struck him that they probably thought he was dead. And after being tossed like that, why not?

He forgot stealth then, and decided that detection was the lesser of two evils. Much worse to be stuck out here when the boxes left. He hurled another grenade, and waited for the explosion before he began running in an arc around the group of raiders. At a distance of about thirty feet from the rearmost sandperson, Korwin opened fire, sweeping his blaster rifle back and forth over the lines of barbarian raiders. Pre-occupied as they were with the retreating rebels up front, they were caught completely unawares by the attack from the rear.

He continued running, even as he spent the last shot in his blaster pak. As the sandpeople began to take notice of him, he threw caution to the wind, planted his left leg in the sand, and cut hard towards the sandpeople. He was now sprinting directly at them. It was the fastest way to the boxes, and he wasn't getting left behind. Luckily, for whatever reason, they hadn't lifted off yet.

Knowing he wouldn't be able to reload while he was in their midst, and not having a place of cover to do it at that moment, he slung his blaster rifle over his shoulder and ripped his vibrodagger from it's sheath. He hit the sandpeople's lines hard and fast, his vibrodagger cutting left and right, slicing cleanly through muscle, tendon, bone and artery.

Korwin didn't slow his breakneck pace as he dashed through, instead dodging and juking away from the clumsy counterattacks of those sandpeople who weren't completely taken by surprise by the ferocious attack. Those who didn't get out of his way found themselves holding gaping, bloody, and sometimes fatal wounds.

As he cleared their lines, he passed his dagger through the flank of a huge sandperson, stabbing the blade deeply into it's gut, and ripping it through it's side and out it's back as he dashed past it. His eyes widened in alarm as he saw the first of the boxes beginning to lift off. "WAIT!" he shouted. He was gratified when he saw Kierse point to him, and then begin firing his blaster rifle at the sandpeople behind him. The door gunner opened up as well, and the other boxes that were lifting off began adding their own covering fire to his escape.

As he neared the box, it began to lift slowly off the ground, and with a great, flying leap he dove headlong inside. He began to cry out as he slid right through the center and saw the other door approaching rapidly. His upper body jetted over the edge, and he felt two pairs of strong hands grab his lower legs and keep him from sliding all the way through. The cry escaped, as a jolt of pain shot through his leg, centering on the wound that was currently being fondled by some asshole behind him. "Shit Nalan, you're wounded!" He heard Kreth say, as her hand came away from his leg covered in blood. Jenrol tried to take a look, but Korwin waved him off quickly.

He pulled himself all the way into the box and rolled over onto his back as it shot into the air. He was about to respond to Kreth, when Kierse shouted, "Holy shit, man! That was crazy!" He slapped Jenrol hard on the shoulder and said, "Did you see that shit?" Turning to Korwin, he repeated, "That was crazy! With the fucking vibrodagger, man, I can't believe that shit. You just ran through that whole fucking mob of sandpeople with nothing but your fucking vibrodagger!"

Kreth was staring hard at him, her face a little pale. Aside from Kierse, in fact, everyone seemed a little quiet. He met each of their eyes, and then said, "What?"

Kierse stopped raving now, and looked him up and down. His brows furrowed together, and he said, "Sithspit Nalan...you're covered in blood."

Korwin looked first at his right hand, and noticed that the vibrodagger was still buzzing happily along. He shut it down, and then looked himself over. Kierse was right. He was drenched in blood. His jumpsuit, his hands, his gear. He could feel it on his face, cooling, and getting sticky. He put a hand to his face, and tried to wipe some of it off. His hands were also covered though, and all he accomplished was smearing it around some. He gave it up as futile, and looked again at the vibrodagger in his hand. He tried to recall exactly what had transpired in those desperate moments, as he rushed through the mob of sandpeople, but the memory eluded him.

The rest of the short ride back to base camp was silent, with each of them lost in their own thoughts. When the box touched down, there was a team of nurses with a stretcher for Korwin. Apparently, the pilot had commed ahead. He hated stretchers, but his leg was killing him, and now that the adrenaline was wearing off walking was become a difficult thing to do.

As he laid down on the stretcher, he realized that he was probably in for a hell of a time when he heard Jenrol say, "Damn, I wish you'd have let me look at that. That's a hell of a hole!"

Korwin groaned at the exclamation, and was relieved when he felt the telltale pinprick that meant he'd be going to dreamland soon. He smiled as the euphoria hit, and let all the unpleasantness of war drift to the background as he floated off into the deep, narcotic sleep of the heavily anaesthetized.

* * *

"Slugthrower got me. I still have the slug that they dug out of my calf. It's sitting in a little box of souvenirs I have from the war." Korwin chuckled.

"Interesting souvenir." Laina said, a teasing smile on her face.

"Yeah, well...it's unique, you know? Not many people have those." He grinned now, mirth twinkling in his eyes. "It was the first thing I asked for when they told me that's what it was. They said it was a slugthrower, and I said, 'gimme the slug'. So they did."

"After that first incident, did the sandpeople become a chronic problem?"

He nodded slowly, his eyes fixed on someplace far in the past. "It started getting to be that every time we went out, they were there. They wiped out an entire recon squad in the canyon. The Imps were getting hit too, we knew that. But we had no idea why they were suddenly there, and so aggressive. They hadn't been sighted yet the whole time we'd been there, and now they're crawling out from under every rock in the desert, you know?"

He shifted in his seat, getting comfortable, and said, "So two weeks after getting shot...again...Borlin summoned me to his tent. He wanted to talk about some patrols into the deep desert. But it was almost like what he said to me that day, kind of started the real hell on Tatooine. Like foreshadowing, you know?"

* * *

Korwin stood at attention in front of Captain Borlin's desk, saluting. Borling returned the salute, and said, "At ease, Corporal." Korwin stood at ease, and Borlin said, "So what do you think of the natives, Nalan?"

"Sir?" Korwin queried, not quite sure of the question.

Borlin rolled his eyes. "The sandpeople, schutta."

Korwin winced internally at Borlin's harsh tone, and said, "They shot me, sir. I don't like them very much."

Borlin chuckled. "That's good, Nalan, That's good." He leaned back in his chair and kicked his feet up onto his desk. "Because we're going to out-tusken the tuskens."

Korwin's expression turned to one of mixed resignation and hope, and he said, "No more canyon?" After that recon squad from a 1st battalion company had gotten vaped by the sandpeople, no one was too eager to work there anymore.

Borlin shook his head. "Let the Imps deal with it. We've got our own problems coming from the desert. That's where we turn. Until we resolve this, neither us nor the Imps are attacking each other. We just can't afford to. Looks like we've got ourselves another little war to fight, Nalan."

"Pardon my asking, sir, but why don't we just bomb the shit out of the sandpeople, and then attack the Imps when they're done getting their asses handed to them by the tribes in the canyon?" Korwin licked his lips, ready for the harsh reprisal he was sure would come.

"Actually, that's not a bad idea. Problem is, High Command won't do it. The sandpeople are sentient beings, they have women and children traveling in their bands. So we have to fight, or negotiate. I don't speak sandperson...do you?"

Korwin almost laughed, when he realized that Borlin didn't seem to find it funny. "No, no I don't sir." He said with a straight face.

"I didn't think so." Borlin said. "Besides that, most of the tribes are nomadic and therefore hard to find, and their camps are generally equipped with fairly decent turbolaser emplacments that they've scrounged up over the millennia."

"So we fight."

Borlin nodded. "We fight."

"So how do we fit in?" Korwin asked, referring to the recon squads.

"You'll be deployed as elite hunter-killer units. You've already got the skills necessary, but we've been doing some research on the sand people." He picked up a datapad that was sitting on his desk and handed it to Korwin. "Read up. This information will save lives, and make you more effective. Your job is to seek out small sandperson war bands, and destroy them. Since you've been laid up, we've sent regulars into the field against them, and they've been ambushed and slaughtered each time. This kind of fighting requires a special kind of soldier, and that's you guys." He said firmly.

Korwin nodded his head, feeling pride rush through him at the Captain's words. "I'll start on the research now sir." Korwin said.

Borlin nodded, and said, "See that you do. Three days, and your squad is in the field. Be ready." Borlin stood and saluted Korwin. "Dismissed."

Korwin saluted, and turned on his heel. As he walked out of the shade of the tent, and into the blistering heat of the desert, he looked down at the datapad in his hand. He hated studying, but this was necessary. As Borlin had said, it would save lives. He walked to 3rd platoon's tent and laid down on his cot, kicking off his boots. Turning the datapad on, he began reading the info that sprang up on the screen. And there was a lot of it.

After what seemed like hours, and likely was, he turned off the datapad and laid it on the ground next to his cot. His eyes were stinging from the reading he'd done already. He'd never been much of a reader, but the amount of information he had read as a recon team leader was staggering. It was going to be a long few days. He removed his jumpsuit and slipped underneath the thin sheet. Rolling onto his side, he closed his eyes. He needed to reset before he could process any more information.

* * *

Korwin's eyes snapped open, and he was immediately aware that something was wrong. He didn't know what though. It was dark, he could see that well enough. He listened, and heard the snoring of the other members of 3rd platoon. As his eyes adjusted to the low light within the tent, he saw that nothing appeared to be out of place. But something was.

He reached down to the ground and groped around for his jumpsuit, but the first thing he felt was the hilt of his vibrodagger. As his fingers brushed gently against it, something deep within him whispered at him to take it up. Unable to ignore the feeling, he wrapped his hand gently around the hilt and grasped it loosely.

Pulling himself to a sitting position, he was startled to realize that Kreth was now awake as well. She was sitting up as well, looking at him, a questioning look on her shadowed face. He said nothing to her, but stood up and began quietly walking to the tent flap. He looked over his shoulder and saw her going to Kierse's cot to wake him up, her blaster rifle in her hands. Korwin turned his attention back to the flap and continued advancing. When he reached it, he carefully pushed it aside and peered out. His eyes widened at what he saw.

Several tusken raiders were creeping along the outer wall of the tent, and he could see more of them preparing to enter 2nd platoon's tent. He leapt outside, startling the sandpeople that were about to enter his own tent. Before they could react, he activated his vibrodagger and plunged it into the lead sandpersons gut. It brayed loudly at the sudden pain, and he pulled the blade violently upward until he felt it hit the sternum, and then ripped it out. As the dying sandperson toppled forward, he stepped back and shouted as loudly as he could, "SANDPEOPLE, WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"

The next sandperson in line swung it's gaffi stick at him, but he hopped backward, dodging the attack. As soon as his feet touched the sand again, he sprang forward, his left fist catching the sandperson in the flank as it recovered from it's attack. It jerked away from his fist, and he stabbed his vibrodagger into it's other side. Not waiting for the creature to react, he jerked the blade toward himself; felt it slice cleanly through it's stomach, and out. He sidestepped around the severely wounded sandperson, and saw that there were two more behind it. One of them had a slugthrower rifle.

He leaped toward the rifle-wielding sandperson just as it raised the weapon. As the barrel of the rifle came up to point at his face, Korwin swiftly swatted it aside with his left hand. Stepping inside the sandperson's guard, he stabbed it twice in the chest. Korwin felt a strange sensation on the back of his neck, and obeyed a sudden gut instinct to shield himself. He grabbed the dying sandperson and spun around with it held in front of him. His arms jerked, and the dying creature moaned pitifully, as a tremendous blow was absorbed by the meat shield.

Korwin gave a mighty heave, and both the dying sandperson and Korwin's aggressor went sprawling. As the other sandperson hurriedly tried to push it's almost-dead comrade off of it, Korwin hurriedly reached down and picked up the dropped slugthrower. The thing starting honking and braying madly, and finally slipped out from under the now dead body. It began scrambling backwards, trying to get away from Korwin.

Pointing the slugthrower at the panicking sandperson's masked face, he squeezed off one round. It's head exploded, resulting in a nasty pile of red-gray goo and chunks of bone, accompanied by a small corona of bloodspray. Korwin stared in amazement at the archaic weapon, then turned it on another sandperson who was running out of 2nd platoon's tent, the bladed end of it's gaffi stick dripping blood. He shot the thing twice in the chest, and marveled at the large, bloody holes the slugthrower made.

He watched as bright flashes went off inside several of the tents, and laughed out loud as he saw another sandperson, and another, come running from two different tents, both braying like crazed animals. He casually took aim and shot them both down. A few more isolated blasts sounded, all of them from energy weapons, and then Alliance soldiers began coming out of their tents, confused and pissed off. "What fuck is this!" He heard someone shout.

Then a panicked cry was heard from one of R Company's tents; "MEDIC!" A moment later, similar cries began sounding from all over the base.

Korwin slung the slugthrower over his shoulder, and turned off his vibrodagger. He looked at the corpse next to him, and spat on it. "Sithspawned fucking demons!" He shouted. He gave the body a hard kick in the flank, and another, before he heard someone shouting for a medic in 2nd platoon's tent.

A heavy feeling settled in his gut, and he turned and walked into the tent. He could see a small group of soldiers crouched over someone in the back of the tent. The heaviness turned to a feeling of sickness, and he stepped up his pace as he approached them. He heard someone muttering curse words through gritted teeth, and knew the voice.

Shouldering his way forward, he said, "Get the fuck back, give him some damn space!" Avery was laid out on the ground next to his cot, his eyes squinted shut as his hands pressed hard against a large stab wound in his stomach. Korwin knelt down next to his friend and said, "Hang tight, okay Ave? Medic's on the way." Turning and looking over his shoulder, he saw his words proved true, as the tent flap opened, and one of K companies medics rushed inside. Korwin got out of his way and let him go to work.

He stood there watching, as the medic did his best to get the bleeding slowed, and then ordered several men to help him take Avery to the field hospital. When they left, Korwin did too, but he didn't go with them to the hospital. Instead, he went inside his own tent. Everyone was alive and accounted for, which allowed Korwin to breathe a sigh of relief. Korwin sat down on his cot, and Kierse came over and sat next to him. Haslin and Jenrol joined them, and Kreth found her way to her own cot.

Kreth looked at Korwin and shook her head, a look of bemusement on her face. "You know, you're getting mighty fond of the vibro all of the sudden."

Korwin looked down at the vibrodagger, and realized that it was still in his hand. He chuckled and shook his head. Setting the dagger down next to his cot, he dropped the slugthrower there as well. Kierse reached down and picked it up. "Damn Nalan, this is one big fucking gun."

Korwin started to laugh, but it turned into a yawn. He covered his mouth with his left hand, and then said, "No shit. Might as well keep it. I'll have to find a way to send it to Naboo or something. Maybe Eli can hold on to it for me, along with that slug they pulled out of me."

Jenrol's head jerked at the name, and he said, "Eli? Who's Eli?"

A sly grin spread on Kierse's face, and he said, "Eli on Naboo, eh? Been holding out on us Nalan?"

Kreth put a hand over her mouth, and said, "Nalan, you got laid, didn't you?" Her tone was scandalous, and her male companions eyed her oddly for a moment at the sudden outburst of femininity. She was generally pretty much just like them...most of the time.

Haslin said nothing to Korwin. He merely grinned and patted Korwin roughly on the shoulder. Korwin let his head loll back, and he groaned loudly.

"C'mon shithead, what the fuck happened?" Kierse demanded loudly, his eyes eager. The red-head was always looking for a good story. Especially one that involved nude women.

Korwin rolled his eyes, and said, "I told you all about Eli, right?"

Everyone shook their heads. Kierse said, "I think I'd remember you telling me about a girl. I love hearing about girls. Not like we have any around here."

"Hey, asshole, what the fuck is that supposed to mean?" Kreth demanded hotly. She loomed over the Corellian now, her fists on her hips.

"Oh cool your repulsors Kreth. I was just fucking around." Kierse shook his head irritatedly as she sat back down, and muttered, "Sithspit." before turning back to Korwin. "So, what about this Eli girl?"

Korwin shrugged and said, "I met this girl on Naboo when I was on leave."

Kreth leaned forward, her eyes sparkling, and she said, "Aaaand? What happened?"

"I fucked her." He laughed then, and Kierse and he high-fived, Jenrol blushed nearly as read as Kierse's hair, and Haslin offered a joking, "Congrats boss."

Kreth kicked him in the shin, and said, "Shit, listen to you gamorreans. Is that all it was? You fucked her, and you're going to send her a war souvenir?"

Korwin sighed, and hung his head against his chest. When he lifted it back up, he had a small smile on his face, one that actually reached his eyes. He said, "Well, I did tell her I would come back."

There was a moment of silence, as Kreth sat there with little hearts in her eyes. Her romantic sensibilities had been all but destroyed over the course of the two military campaigns she'd taken part in so far. Hearing something like that was almost like... "A holodrama! It's just like those holodrama's my girlfriends and I used to watch in high school, back on Dantooine!"

Seeing the looksof incomprehension thatthe rest of the squad was giving her, shehuffedirritatedly and said,"The lonely young war veteran meets a beautiful girl on leave and they fall in love, and he goes through the rest of the war knowing that if he makes it, his ultimate reward is to be with her." She sighed girlishly, further shocking her male companions. "Force, that's so romantic!" She looked at them all then, and spread her arms out, saying, "Seriously, isn't it? C'mon."

Korwin shrugged, and said, "I don't know about all that. I told her I'll go back, and I will. We'll see about it after that. Who knows." He felt another yawn coming on, and did nothing to stand in it's way, allowing it to break loose unimpeded.

Kreth cocked her head, and said, "Listen Nalan, why don't you get some sleep. I'll tell Cap what you did."

Korwin nodded his head, and laid down. Pulling the covers up, he looked over at Kreth, and said, "You know our sentries are dead, don't you?"

She nodded.. "Have to be. Don't worry about it though. We'll cover you boss. Get some sleep. We'll take watches just like on patrol."

He nodded his approval, and said, "Okay. Night." He closed his eyes and let his breathing slow. Pure exhaustion allowed him to relax, despite the events of just minutes previous and the new grime that covered him. Faith in his comrades allowed him to fall asleep moments later.

* * *

"Did Avery make it? Your friend from Tides?"

Korwin nodded his head. "Yeah, he did. They got him into surgery, and then into a bacta tank, and he was back fighting again within a couple weeks. It was a bad wound though. A couple more minutes, he'd have bled to death."

Laina jotted a few notes down, and then leaned forward slowly. Keeping direct eye contact, she said, "How did you know that something was wrong?"

Narrowing his eyes ever so slightly, Korwin said, "How do you mean?"

"You said that you just knew that something was out of place. Something wasn't right. You knew there was somebody outside, and that something bad was going to happen. You knew that you'd need your vibrodagger. How did you know?" She asked, her soft, wondering.

He sighed. "After the war, or at least after I was done with it, I was introduced briefly to Luke Skywalker. He was all dressed in these black robes, and had one of those lightsabers on his belt. No blaster or anything like that, but then I don't expect a Jedi Master would need something like that." He frowned thoughtfully, and then his expression turned to a smile as he said, "You know, he was shorter than I thought he'd be. Kind of a soft spoken guy." He took a sip of his water, and said, "He told me that word had gotten to him through my COC, or Chain of Command, that I had gotten some feelings in the past. That sometimes, I knew when shit was going to go down, you know?"

Laina nodded, and said, "He thought you had the force?"

Korwin shrugged, and said, "Well, I guess I do. He told me I could be a Jedi, learn from him."

"What happened? How come you didn't make it?" She asked.

He chuckled, and said, "Oh no young lady, you misunderstand. I told him no. Right there, didn't have to think about it...no."

Laina was taken aback at that. "You told him no? But why?"

Korwin shrugged his shoulders and smiled. "Why not? I had Eli to go to when I was done fighting, and enough money saved up that I could contact Faroul and bring my family to Naboo. Training like that would have taken time that I didn't _want_ to spare. I was twenty-one years old, and felt like I was fifty. I had never wanted to fight a war in the first place, you know? But once I was there I couldn't leave, even when I got the chance after Endor. I signed on for another tour of duty, kept on fighting. Went for another year before I'd had my fill."

Korwin took another sip of his water, and then said, "At that point, when Skywalker came to see me, the only thing I wanted to do was put away my weapons and never use them again. To this day, I haven't fired a blaster rifle or slugthrower, and my vibrodagger hasn't had an energy cell in it for closing on twenty-five years now."

Korwin's eyes were a little moist now, and he swiped a hand across them and said, "You really take life for granted until you're in a situation like that. Not a day goes by, I don't think of guys like Tandro, or Turneen, you know? Guys who didn't make it, friends of mine. I look at guys like them and I know that at any moment, if I had been maybe three inches to the left, or standing up another inch higher, I could have been the one with a hole in my head. If I hadn't turned around when I did, that plasma grenade would have fried my guts." He took another long drink of his water, and set the glass down.

Shifting in his seat to get comfortable, Korwin said, "I remember a day a long time back, when my daughter was still a baby, before my son came. I must have been about twenty-three or something. Anyways, Eli was sick, I was sick, the baby was sick, and I had to drop the baby off with Eli's mom and dad, and then go to work. Now, I was laying stone at the time, working on those marble causeways they have all over Theed, doing repair work and whatnot. To make a long story short, I had a miserable day at work. My head was pounding and my nose was all stuffed up, my back was killing me, and my right shoulder where I got shot in Mos Espa was aching all day long.

"By the time I picked up Malea, our daughter, and got home, I was so tired and so sore. But all day long, I was in a good mood. Because I just thought of all those people I knew who would never take their sick baby to grandma and grandpa so they could go have a shitty day at work. They would never get married, have kids, watch their kids grow up. Men and women, eighteen, nineteen, twenty years old. Aliens too. Young people, most of them not more than five years older than me, or young for their race at any rate.

"And here I am, you know? Twenty-three years old now and almost two years removed from combat, cooking dinner for my beautiful wife and watching my baby girl try to take her first steps..." He ducked his head, and his breath hitched, and Laina could see his shoulders begin to shake a bit. After a moment, he sniffed softly, and wiped his eyes. He looked up, and offered a weak smile that didn't quite reach his glistening brown eyes. "I'm sorry. It's just hard to talk about."

"It's alright Mr. Nalan." Laina said, trying to sound reassuring. It was strange for her, and a little uncomfortable. She could tell that other members of the crew felt the same. It was an old hurt she was seeing, a very old one, whose roots were older than she was. But it was no less raw, and no less intense for all the time that had passed. She could see the pain written clearly across his face as he spoke.

"It's just a hard thing sometimes, being one of the survivors. You don't ever want to ask why, you know? But sometimes, you just wonder why you made it and other people didn't, you know? Why did that stray blaster bolt hit them, not me. I was standing right there, in the same line of fire. Why did that person die, and I'm here talking about it almost forty years later?" He sniffed again, and his face took on an almost neutral expression, as he said, "I think about that sometimes."

Korwinsat there for a moment, unmoving, and then shook off his gloom. Offering Laina a smile, he said, "Would you mind if we called it for the rest of the day? I think lunch and a nap would be more beneficial to me right now than lunch and an interview."

Laina was once again taken aback a bit by his words, but she nodded her head in acquiescence. "Very well. Tomorrow then."

He nodded his head, and headed for the door, saying, "Have a good day everyone."

As Laina watched the door _whoosh_ shut behind Korwin, she looked down at her datapad and began sifting through the days information. Despite only being a half-day, it had actually been quite productive. She was shocked at some of the stories she was hearing from him. The hand to hand combat had been a harrowing experience to live through, she was sure, but even his retelling had sent chills down her spine.

After Korwin's rather graphic narratives of the last few days, and the heart-wrenching display she'd just seen, Laina was more happy than ever that she'd chosen a career in journalism over the New Republic Naval Academy.


	13. Interlude: The Teacher

The morning sun rose above a lively Corellian skyline, bathing the towers of Coronet City in a soft, golden, post-dawn glow. Personal speeders and public transportation vehicles darted this way and that across the city's skyways. Dilan Kierse sat in the teacher's lounge of Han Solo Community High School and watched the passing traffic absently, his mind on the coming day. His students would be arriving in the classroom soon, but he wouldn't be there. They'd have a substitute for their Galactic Literature classes in the morning.

He looked at the chronometer on the wall and sighed. He ran a hand through his short, white hair, and thought for a moment about coloring it. No, better not to. At fifty-nine years old, he was still a fairly handsome man, if he did say so himself. His wife certainly thought so. Shaking his head, he chuckled, and then noticed the time. "Shit." He muttered. He stood up and smoothed his dark blue outer robe over his slender frame. It was a thick, soft cotton material, and very comfortable. Underneath it, he wore a pair of loose black pants, and a loose silver tunic. He couldn't help but wonder if anyone would notice the crimson stripe running down his pants legs. His feet were encased in a pair of soft black slippers. He hadn't worn boots since...in a long time.

He was the last one left in the lounge, all the other teachers having made their way to their classrooms. He heard the final bell sound, and quickened his pace. After several minutes of fast-walking, he came to a bright orange door and stopped outside to catch his breath. When he had himself under control, he put a smile on his face, and stepped inside. "Oh, Dilan, hey there. Had some time did you?" Lorn Tendrin, one of the school's Fourth Level History teachers, grinned.

Dilan continued to smile, and said to the class, "Good morning folks."

The class, made up of a myriad of races, greeted him warmly. Mr. Kierse was well-loved by the students of Han Solo High. He had some unorthodox teaching methods, and didn't really follow the normal curriculum. But parents couldn't deny the results when they saw their children's quarterly test scores. From the student's point of view, he was a trusted confidant, someone you could go to when you were in trouble and needed a friend. He was an adult who would understand, no matter what kind of trouble you were in.

Aeryn Frenn knew this first hand. She'd gotten pregnant when she was a sophomore, and it had been Mr. Kierse she'd told first. He'd helped her figure out what she wanted to do, then had gone with her to tell her parents. He'd also helped her family get a good lawyer to sue for child support from the father's family when they refused to help. It had also been him who had helped her relatively poor family with expenses for nearly a year after her son was born. He was like an uncle to her. _Hell, to everyone._ She thought to herself.

She didn't know why Mr. Kierse was in her history class, but she was sure she'd find out. She tuned back in to Mr. Tendrin. "Today class, we are nearing the final phase of our study of the Galactic Civil War. But instead of continuing with the endless lectures, notes, and holodocs, I thought we'd take a different route. I don't want to see any note-taking...or note-_passing_ this morning."

Aeryn watched as Mr. Kierse shuffled his feet nervously. He seemed to be playing with the hem of his robe's sleeve, before deciding to take it off. Her eyes popped at the crimson stripe on his pants. _That can't be what I think it is...not Mr. Kierse. No way!_ Mr. Tendrin continued, saying, "Today we will be talking to a real live veteran of the Civil War. He fought in the infantry, first as a regular grunt troop and then later as a demolitions expert and rifleman in an elite reconnaissance squad. He served in combat for almost five years, and received four Crosses of Alderaan for wounds taken in combat. He was also awarded Corellia's highest military honor, the Corellian Bloodstripe, for valor above and beyond the call of duty in combat as reported by a high-ranking Corellian officer of the Alliance." He paused for effect, and then gestured modestly to his fellow teacher. "Ladies and gentlebeings, I give you Lt. Dilan Kierse of the Rebel Alliance Army."

The classroom was silent, and if their thoughts were anything like Aeryn's, she could understand why. She was floored. She'd known Mr. Kierse for four years now, and had never known that about him. He just was so...goofy, and sarcastic. And sweet. He didn't seem at all like a war hero.

Dilan took a long shaky breath, and then said, "Well, I guess I'm supposed to answer some questions." He was a bit nervous, having never agreed to do anything like this before. Korwin and Danna had called him about that documentary thing, but he'd respectfully declined. It wasn't that he didn't want his story getting out. He just didn't want to be the one to tell it. Korwin and Danna had been there for most of it, so they could do it just fine.

Now he was stuck here, getting ready to lay himself bare before twenty-five post-pubescent quasi-adults. Lorn had asked, he'd refused. Lorn had called his wife, being the concerned friend he is._ Concerned friend hell...little bastard's young enough to be my kid._ Dilan's wife had convinced him. He'd accepted Lorn's offer. Now he was stuck. He sighed as he remembered what Lorn had told him last night.

"_Be honest. Don't sugarcoat it. I've already cleared this with the parents. Some of these kids have grandparents who were part of the war, or were touched by it, and they don't like to talk about it either. You have no idea how much it would mean to these kids to hear it from someone who was there, Dilan. It's not real to them, not like it is for you, or even for someone from my generation. They take it for granted, and it's not their fault." _

Lorn was right, of course. The kids did take it for granted. His own grandkids did. He'd never told his wife, his kids, any of them about it. He talked about it with Danna, and Korwin, and other vets at Krayt Company and 1st Company (LRIS) reunions. But no one else. Now that would change. He saw the first hand go up. It was one of his favorite students, a girl named Aeryn Frenn. She was a brilliant writer, and had a bright future ahead of herself so long as she kept her priorities straight. He called on her.

"Mr. Kierse, did you actually, you know, like, fight?" She asked, her eyebrows raised. Her blond hair spilled down her back, and some of it fell in her face. She pushed it back and stared at him. The rest of the class stared too. For some reason, he felt...intimidated.

Finding his voice, he cleared his throat, and replied, "Yes, yes I did."

A Rodian boy in the back asked, "How many battles did you fight in?"

That question put Dilan back on his heels. He thought about it, and then said, "Well Deetz, I really don't know. There were too many to count. I can tell you that I saw combat in five campaigns, on seven different worlds, and in space a few times as well."

The class looked on him with something approaching awe now, and Aeryn put forth another question, her mind now filled with them. He seemed like such an easygoing guy. She just couldn't picture him in a war. "So...then you like, killed people?"

"I did." He replied. In her head, Aeryn tried to picture the gray haired old guy in front of her running around in those outfits she'd seen in the holodrama's, blasting stormtroopers. It didn't work.

A human boy asked him, "What did you look like? Do you have holos?"

Now he began to loosen up a little. He had brought a slide show of holos with him, and he always felt better in some way...more connected to the world after looking at his war holos. "Actually I do. Lorn, of you would?" He handed Lorn the chip that they were in, and Lorn inserted it into his holoprojector in the front of the room.

The machine hummed to life, and the first holo that popped up was of a young man standing on top of a sand dune, his arms spread wide and a huge grin on his face. He was wearing combat boots and a jumpsuit, the top of which was unzipped and pushed down to his waist. His hair was a bright flaming red, and the skin on his face, arms, and bare chest was deeply tanned from exposure to the sun. His ID tags glinted brightly, casting a small glow on his chest. In his right hand he held a loaded blaster rifle, his finger on the trigger, in his left a canteen of water. There was a long scar that ran across the top of his right pectoral muscle, the only blemish on an otherwise perfectly sculpted torso.

He grinned at the students varying reactions to the holo, and then heard someone ask, "Who's that?"

He laughed, and said, "That's me on Tatooine. I was twenty years old there."

Aeryn grinned madly, as she blurted, "Stars Mr. Kierse...You were a hottie!" The rest of the class laughed, and she laughed along with them. Dilan just shook his head at them. A boy asked, "What's with the blaster rifle and the canteen?"

Dilan thought about it for a moment, and then said, "I believe the whole thing came from a question I asked. We were on Tatooine, it was the middle of the afternoon, and we were sitting there with a few other friends on this dune. I asked everybody what they would want if they were stranded in the Tatooine desert by themselves and could only have two things. Answers went from attractive members of the opposite sex, to favorite foods, creature comforts, magical doodads and so on." He laughed a juvenile little laugh, and said, "My own two were a beautiful girl who wouldn't say no, and a lifetime supply of Corellian whiskey." He chuckled again and thought that the class would laugh with him, but he could see that all he'd done was shock them into silence. He continued on, trying to fill the awkward space. "Anyway, we got to Korwin, and he thought about it for a minute. Then he goes, 'I'd want a blaster rifle, loaded and primed with an extra clip taped up...and a canteen of water than never ran dry. And I'd outlast all of you.' Of course, he was right. He absolutely would have."

A wistful expression came over Dilan's face, and he said, "So I picked up my rifle, which was loaded and primed with an extra clip taped to the primed clip, and my canteen. I stood up, spread out my arms and go, 'Like this?', and this girl from R Company snaps a holo." He smiled at the memory, and then went to the next holo.

It was a stunning young woman with short black hair and brilliant turquoise eyes, sitting on a big white crate with an endless sea of sand behind her, wearing the same kind of jumpsuit as they men had been, unzipped at pushed to the waist. Instead of a bare chest, she had a tanktop on, and she had a blaster rifle lying across her lap. Aeryn admired her beauty. _Even in a war zone._ _I wish I looked that good._ She thought to herself.

Another girl called out, "Who's she Mr. Kierse?"

"This is Sgt. Danna Kreth. She was a Private in this picture. She was our recon squad's assistant team leader, meaning that regardless of rank, as far as _our _little unit went she was second in command. This girl was a bad-ass." Some of the kids laughed at his language, and he grinned and continued on. "She had this sixth sense. She was always ready for trouble. She was tough, resourceful, smart. Everything a good recon soldier needs to be."

He clicked to the next holo, and a gangly young man with a goofy smile and short blond hair appeared. He was standing inside a tent, and there were several other soldier's behind him, crouched in a circle "This is Eulen Jenrol. He was the first medic chosen for our recon squad. He was a good recon guy, and a great medic."

He clicked again, and up came a holo of a short, stocky man with brown hair, and smiling brown eyes. His eyes grew misty and his voice was thick with emotion as he said, "This is Wels Tandro. He was our squad leader when we were just regular infantry. He was killed by a grenade during combat on Yavin IV when we were evacuating high command." He blinked the moisture away, and clicked again.

Aeryn drew in her breath, and so did many of the other females in the class, as a holo of a gorgeous young black man appeared. His brown eyes stared straight at the camera, and even though it was a holo Aeryn felt as if the stony gaze were piercing right through her. There was a hard, serious expression on his handsome face, one that echoed the look in his eyes. His hair was in tight cornrows, and his face was smooth and unblemished. His jumpsuit was pushed to his waist, revealing a sleek, muscular physique. His right shoulder had a smooth, shiny scar on it, large and round. It almost looked like the skin there had been melted like water, and then frozen. He had a similar scar on his left upper arm.

He was standing on top of the same dune the young Mr. Kierse had been and there was a large, wicked looking knife grasped loosely in his right hand. Both his arms hung relaxed at his side, and his feet were planted firmly, shoulders width apart. She looked to Mr. Kierse, and saw that he looked almost as awed as the class did. She noticed that everyone, not just the girls, was taken with the holo. There was a subtle feeling of reverance hanging about the classroom.

When Dilan spoke again, it was to a silent class that seemed to feel the same thing he did. The holo was almost magical. It did that to people. "This is Korwin Nalan, the guy who inspired the blaster and canteen holo. He was an Alliance Recon legend. There's a statue of him in the New Republic Army Reconnaissance school."

"Is he still alive?" Came the question from a chubby Bothan male.

Dilan nodded his head, and said, "Yes he is. He lives in a big house in the northern lake country of Naboo with his wife. He's got two grown kids, and five grandkids. Actually, he'll be on the history network in a special documentary thing next year. They're filming the interviews with the veterans now. I think it's called Soldier, or something like that."

"What was he like? He looks so young." Said Aeryn, her expression betraying her intense curiosity.

Dilan smiled at her question. He liked talking about other people. It took the focus off of him, if only for a little while. "He was young there. Who here is eighteen or older?" All of the students raised their hand. A surprised smile lit his face, and he nodded his head at the results of his quick poll. "Korwin was seventeen in this picture. He was the team leader of our recon squad, meaning he was The Man. Even I took orders from him."

Aeryn's jaw dropped. "Seventeen! But that's so young! He should have been in...in..."

"Eleventh grade. I know." Dilan smiled at the class. "He was incredible though. He really was. He had this instinct, him and Danna both. But Korwin was something else. When the fighting started, he was the guy you always wanted with you. He was a smart, intuitive fighter, and he was skilled with all of his weapons. Guy could disappear on flat sand in a matter of seconds. You could step on him and you wouldn't know he was there, his camo was so good."

Deezt, the Rodian, said, "Why did he join the army that young?"

"Well, he lived in a very poor neighborhood in the city he was from. He sold drugs to help his mom pay bills and support his younger brother and sister. Some bad things happened, and enlisting was a way for him to avoid incarceration."

Aeryn asked, "What about those scars?"

Dilan sighed, and then chuckled. "Both blaster wounds. The left arm was from an Imp blaster rifle on Gnazt on his very first patrol out of training. The shoulder was from a heavy repeating blaster cannon in Mos Espa, on Tatooine. He was wounded quite a few times. A lot more than me."

Dilan gestured at the image in front of the class, and said, "By the time this holo was taken, he'd been shot in the left arm, right thigh and right shoulder with energy weapons, shot in the left calf by a sandperson's slugthrower, severely burned on his back by a plasma grenade, and given a concussion and 2nd degree burns on his side when a bomb dropped by a TIE bomber landed right next to him."

The class began murmuring to each other loudly, and one boy, said, "Damn, and he was only seventeen there?" The kid scrunched his face up, and said, "If he was always getting so messed up, why is he such a legend to recon guys?"

Dilan smiled at the kid, and waited for the class to settle down a bit before answering. When they'd quieted enough, he began recounting to them the incident involving the crashed black box and the sand people. He watched the play of emotions across the student's face's as he told them of the pilot and co-pilot being shot, and Korwin being thrown from the box in mid-flight. He could tell they were enraptured by his tale.

He himself was being taken back to that dark night, when he'd been screaming at the pilot of his box to circle for a few, and look for Korwin. The pilot had been in the process of taking off, vocally refusing to comply with the irate corporal's wishes, when Dilan had spotted his best friend weaving through the crowd of barbarians, dropping them left and right with uncannily accurate swipes of his vibrodagger.

He had felt helpless at first, and then hopeful. When his friend had dropped that last big one with a single vicious slash across the mid-section, he'd almost started cheering he felt so elated. And when he'd made it onto the box, Dilan had felt safe again. He always felt safe with Korwin.

Aeryn sat still in her seat, listening to Mr. Kierse's voice, but staring at the holo of the hard-eyed young man. As hard as it had been before today for her to imagine Mr. Kierse young, it was even harder to imagine Korwin Nalan old. The story of his fearless dash through the mob of Tusken Raider's, using only his knife to defend himself as he tried to reach his comrades before he was stranded in the desert, made her heart thump with excitement.

When Dilan had finished his story, he saw that an Ithorian female was raising her hand to speak. He called on her, and she said, "What did such a fierce warrior do when he had no more fighting to do? How did he live in peace after something like that?"

Dilan blinked at the question, then shrugged. "He laid down his weapons. He fought for a little over four years; almost as long as I did, and he did his fair share of killing. He hasn't fired a single shot from any weapon, or been in any kind of violent confrontation in thirty-five years now. He's very much a pacifist. Won't even hunt."

"What about you, Mr. Kierse? What did you do?"

He shrugged. "Well, I was the squad's demolitions expert. Anything that went BANG or BOOM was my turf. Korwin used to get really uptight about me being the rear guard on patrol. He used to say that if my pack got hit, half of Tatooine would be gone." When the class laughed, he added, "But it really would have been more like ten city blocks." The laughing died down a little bit at that.

"Wasn't it scary, getting shot at and all of that; especially with the explosives?" Asked Aeryn.

"Of course it was. Anyone who says they're not scared going into combat is either a liar, an idiot, or a headcase." Dilan shrugged his shoulders, and said, "Well, let's move on to the next one shall we." They finished the slide show, the next class favorite being a holo of Mr. Kierse's recon squad in full desert patrol gear, just after returning from a five day mission. After that, they began talking about the campaigns he'd fought in.

He didn't worry about all of the technical information, but instead found himself simply telling stories. Some of them were exciting, some tragic and sad, others funny or uplifting. He told the story of Korwin going into Mos Espa during the bombing, and finding him with his head in that little girls lap while she stroked his hair and hummed a lullaby to him. He told them of his wounds, and how he'd received each of them, and how it was he'd gotten the Bloodstripe.

Aeryn listened to her favorite teacher talk about his wartime experiences, and was in awe of him. Her own grandfather had been an A-wing pilot during the war, and had fought in space above Endor and Coruscant. He'd told her his stories, but it was amazing for her to hear of the same battles from a ground troop's point of view. While her grandfather had been battling TIE fighter's and interceptor's in space above Coruscant, her future Galactic Lit. teacher had been miles and miles beneath him, engaging in a game of urban cat and mouse with Imperial Commando's in his last major combat of the war.

As his stories wound down, and the questions stopped coming, he looked at the Chronometer and realized that the seventy-five minute class was almost over. He smiled at the class, and said, "Well I guess that's really it. There's a lot more to it, but class is almost over, so I don't have time. However, if any of you need help on your final report, don't hesitate to come see me." The bell rang then, and the kids got up and filed out, all of them taking a moment to tell him what a bad-ass he was, or how cool he was, or to say thanks for the stories.

The last one to leave was Aeryn Frenn. She came up to him and stood in front of him. Then, putting her arms around him, she hugged him and said, "I had no idea." She stepped back, and smiled at him, blushing a little as she said, "I just wanted to thank you...for fighting for us." She reddened a little more, and then quickly added, "Even if we weren't born yet." She then turned and quickly walked out of the room, the door shutting softly behind her.

Dilan sighed and looked at Lorn. Lorn grinned, and said, "Well old man, was I right, or was I right?"

Dilan chuckled, and decided that he did feel pretty good about it. "Yeah kid, you were right." He said, flashing Lorn a lop-sided Corellian grin. "We'll have to do this again sometime."


	14. Soldier 12

Thank you to the few readers who have posted reviews. It's much appreciated, and adds fuel to the creative fires.

A hockey gambling ring...only in Canada...and America. Well, maybe Russia too. Damn you, Wayne Gretzky's wife! Damn you!

Of course, I don't follow hockey. Just it's scandals.

* * *

Laina was relieved to see Korwin in good spirits when he walked into the sitting room and sat in his chair. He flashed one of his frequent grins, and said, "Good morning Laina." 

She returned the smile and the greeting, and then said, "Whenever you're ready, Mr. Nalan."

He nodded his head, and the grin faded a bit. He ran a hand over his cornrows and sighed deeply. He then leaned his head against the backrest of his chair and said, "True to Cap's word, we were out in the Dune Sea trolling for sandpeople after three days. The attack on the camp was scary for sure, but they didn't do much damage. I got a medal for that one." He chuckled. "Nothing big, though. Borlin asked if I wanted a metal for the 'crowd control' that I'd done when the box had crashed. I told him no on that one. I was just trying to save my ass there, no heroics involved." He laughed a little louder, and it spread quickly through the room.

After the laughter had subsided, his face became more serious, as he began to recall the details of the mission. "We were dropped in at night of course, about ten miles south of base. Once we gained air superiority we'd eventually gain the ability to call in air support if we were in deep shit. Of course, we always had a platoon of regulars on stand-by, and the boxes to bring em'. But then, if we got hit by a large force out there without any cover, it'd be a payback job by the regulars. We'd already be dead."

"What about the incident with the crashed box?" Laina asked.

"Well that was the thing; they had the box to take cover in, and that lasted them long enough for the regulars to get there. On open sand, we'd be fucked." Korwin said matter-of-factly. "We'd also eventually get artillery support, but we didn't have any big guns on Tatooine yet. The Navy was still taking most of the really good recruits, and most of the funding we were picking up." He took a sip of his water, and said, "Anyways, we made our insertion without any problems. The next thing to do was find a likely spot, and wait."

* * *

The twin suns of Tatooine beat down on the heat-scorched planet's surface, the thick atmosphere magnifying the brilliant UV rays and turning the air between space and dirt into a world-sized broiler. Stinging hot winds swept endlessly across the ever-changing landscape of the vast Northern Dune Sea, the sands of time burying the truths of today and turning them into the mysteries of tomorrow. 

In this land of death, the only thing that mattered was survival. For one to believe that he was fighting for any other cause was folly. The city-dwellers and farmers knew it. The ceaselessly opportunistic Jawa's knew it. The Children of the Sand knew it. The Imps and Rebels knew it. Korwin knew it.

He'd been lying flat on his stomach, almost completely covered with sand, for almost eight hours now. He hadn't moved a muscle in that entire time. Success as a recon man depended on discipline, he'd found. Still, his entire body was aching from lack of movement and somehow, underneath the thick layer of sand, he'd almost started getting cold. The idea was almost absurd, considering his present location, but there it was.

He was currently halfway up the side of a dune that he guessed was almost fifty feet high. The damn thing was _huge_. Somewhere to his right, buried similarly, was Kierse. Another large dune directly opposite Korwin and Kierse's created a kind of shallow, sandy valley that stretched for almost a mile east to west, it's course altering little. After that, the dunes got smaller and smaller, until they reached the flat sands near Mos Espa and the Xelric Draw that the base lay on.

On the opposite dune, also buried and camouflaged, were Kreth and Jenrol. Haslin was...well, Korwin didn't know exactly where Haslin was. He'd gone off to 'find myself the perfect huntin' spot, boss.' He knew where to regroup though, so Korwin didn't worry about him.

He was satisfied with what they'd decided on. They'd nail the first group of tusken's that was smaller than fifteen heads, then head to the regrouping area and call for extraction. Hopefully they wouldn't get ambushed themselves on the way there. Korwin smiled mirthlessly at thought. It was bound to happen to some patrol or another.

He slowly shifted his half-closed eyes to the east, where his gut told him they'd be coming from. He kept his gaze on that point, and was soon rewarded for his hours of patience. He gave a single click on the hand-held comm in his left hand. His electronic earpiece registered a single click in reply; Haslin's signal that he too had spotted the group of sandpeople.

Korwin watched them making their way up the little valley that the dune's created. They were using it as cover to get closer to the Alliance base. From there, they'd lie in wait until an unsuspecting group of infantrymen plodded past, and then they'd wipe them all out.

But this group would never make it past the draw. As they drew near, the cold, humorless smile again spread across Korwin's face. There were only nine of them. They were on foot, walking in single file, about five feet between each of them. His team had spent two days working on this ambush strategy. It was relatively simple, of course. Complexity led to unnecessary deaths, but no matter how simple a mission plan was, it could never be over-rehearsed. Especially with something as potentially volatile as an ambush.

There were two attack signals once the tusken's had been spotted and Haslin had acknowledged his readiness. The first was for Haslin alone. Another single click on the comm would set Haslin's trigger finger to work. Once Korwin was ready for the team to go, he'd give a double click. As the lead sandperson neared Korwin's position, he clicked the 'talk' button on the comm once.

Barely a second later, a brilliant white energy bolt lanced through the lead tusken's head. It dropped to the ground, it's body flopping about madly. Korwin winced internally at the sight. No matter how many times he watched a headshot victim do the fish flop, it never disturbed him any less. A second shot followed almost immediately, and the second sandperson in line fell with a neat hole through the heart. The remaining seven sandpeople began to run for the protection of the two great dunes, when Korwin gave the second attack signal.

Haslin dropped another as Korwin leapt to his feet, sending sand flying everywhere. He quickly drew a bead on the nearest sandperson and pumped three bolts into it's chest. It dropped soundlessly to the sand, and Korwin sprayed a few bolts at two of them that were leveling their slugthrowers at him. The wild shots missed completely, but succeeded in getting them to hesitate long enough for Kierse to gun them both down.

The remaining three were already running away, when Jenrol flung a grenade at them. It passed in front of them and exploded, a brilliant red flash of plasma completely cooking the first two. The last one was shielded from the blast by it's two comrades, but found itself lying on it's back, dazed. It slowly stood up, still facing away from them, and Kreth put it down for good with five bolts in it's back.

Without a word, the larry's left their current position and headed southwest, following Kreth to the regrouping point. Haslin was already there when they reached it, and Korwin pulled out his comm again, and brought it to his mouth. "This is Larry K calling for extraction."

The reply came in the squad's earpiece's a moment later. "Copy that Larry K, your ride is on the way, over."

Korwin activated the small homing beacon that would allow them to pinpoint their location, and then waited to hear the loud engines of the box. As they'd just blown the shit out of a Sandpeople hunting party, stealth wasn't really a concern anymore. Anything in the area knew they were around somewhere. Hopefully they'd look at the crime scene first.

Just minutes later his mind was put at ease, as he heard the familiar sound of the box approaching. He could see it, too, flying high over the sands. Now that the Imps were otherwise occupied, they didn't have to worry too much about the radar limit. It descended fast, and touched down hard. Korwin stood up with the rest of his squad, and watched them all board before getting on himself. He didn't know why, but even after taking a bullet in the leg for it the doorway was still his favorite place to sit.

As he always did after a mission, he screamed loudly when the box took off. His squad mates joined him, each of them giving a shout of primal joy at having survived another one. And, of course, to exercise underused vocal chords. When they'd finished their hollering, Korwin noticed the co-pilot grinning back at them. The box drivers had gotten used to the yelling that the recon troops on Tatooine did. All of them did it. It was like an unofficial post-op ritual. It was especially good for relieving tension after those long missions where up-close sightings were constant and contact was a no-no.

The squad didn't say anything as they flew back to base, just shared a smile with each other. They'd just conducted the first successful planned ambush of the sandpeople. Well, the first attempted, to be fair to the other recon units. For Korwin, it was just a relief. He knew that if his squad could pull it off like that, so could any of the other larry's on Tatooine. He had just as much faith in those guys as he did in his own. As far as Korwin was concerned, if you were recon, you were the best.

When the box touched down in the camp, Korwin slid off the edge of the doorway, and slung his pack over one shoulder. He began walking wearily to the Battalion CP for de-briefing. Kierse walked alongside him, and he could hear Kreth, Haslin and Jenrol talking about the mission as they followed along.

As they walked, Kierse turned to Korwin and said, "I think you have an admirer." Korwin turned his head, and saw Kierse pointing off towards the mess tents they'd just passed. He looked around for a moment, and then saw Private Melara waving to him.

He smiled and waved back, before turning his eyes ahead again and replying, "Oh well."

When they arrived at Battalion CP, Korwin geared himself up for another long debriefing. He was pleasantly surprised to find that he had little to report. They'd dropped in, hiked to their ambush point, hidden themselves, ambushed, and left. Each of them gave a detailed report of the mission as they'd seen it, and then headed back to their tent.

At first, Korwin hadn't seen the point of all of them giving individual accounts of every mission. When he'd asked Captain Borlin about it, he'd explained that everyone viewed a mission differently, especially when combat was involved. Often times, you would have a completely different view of a battle than the soldier six feet away from you. That had made sense to him, and now he didn't have a problem with it. Still, though, it would be nice if they could make them shorter all around.

Korwin and his squad dropped their combat gear off in their tent before making their way to the shower facilities. Kreth headed into the female showers, tossing a flippant, "See you guys at chow tonight." over her shoulder. Korwin and the other three headed into the mens showers. After disrobing, Korwin stepped under a showerhead and turned it on. You only had a minute of water each time you pressed the button, and you were only supposed to press it twice. Unfortunately, grease paint could be stubborn stuff, and often didn't want to come clean with one washing.

After almost fifteen minutes in the showers, the four men dressed in clean jumpsuits complete with name tags, rank insignia, and campaign tags. Korwin zipped his to the waist, and forewent putting on the upper half of it, as did the others. As they were pulling on their boots, Haslin said, "Hey boss, you ever finish high school?"

Korwin snorted, and began lacing up his boots. "Hell no, Private." He only called Haslin by his rank when he thought he was being stupid. "I'm seventeen."

"Oh, right. Well shit, when are you turning eighteen?" He asked.

Kierse and Jenrol looked up from lacing their boots when they heard the question. Jenrol said, "Yeah boss, when is your birthday?"

Korwin thought about it for a moment. Drawing a blank, he said, "What's today?"

"Ummmm...December 6th. Why?"

"About two months then. My birthday is the 13th of February." Korwin replied. He finished lacing his boots and stood up. "Hey, I'm gonna take a little walk. I'll see you all later. Maybe at chow or something." He stepped outside and instantly his bare chest began beading with sweat. A moment later, a stinging droplet fell into his eye. He blinked it away and began walking towards the edge of camp. As he passed the mess tents, he saw Melara coming towards him. He stopped, and waited for her.

"Something I can do for you, Melara?" Korwin asked politely. He'd been hoping to get some time alone, and this was not a welcome interruption. Nothing short of a transport to Naboo would have been.

She nodded, and said, "Sir...I just wanted to thank you. You know, for back in Mos Espa, when we were first going in. I never really did say thank you for talking to me before the battle. So thanks."

Korwin shrugged, and said, "It was nothing. You'd have been fine anyway."

Melara looked at the ground for a moment, almost seeming a bit shy, before looking back up. "Well, it made me feel a lot better. It made me feel like I was going to be okay. I just wanted you to know that."

Looking at her, and hearing those words, Korwin couldn't help but be a little less irritated with her. He flashed her a grin and said "Hey, it was no problem, okay? We all need a little help every now and then...you know what I mean?"

She smiled and nodded her head. "Yeah, I do." She frowned then, and said, "I also forgot to thank you for getting me a medic that night. I was just too scared, and it hurt so much...I couldn't do anything." Her lower lip began to quiver, and she quickly looked down again. Her gaze still on the ground, she said, "I felt like a coward, especially when you ran off to keep fighting, even though you were wounded."

When she looked up again, her face was filled with shame. It was only made worse when Korwin burst out laughing. Her reaction was not positive, and she quickly ducked her head again, her posture becoming tense and rigid. Korwin cut himself off mid-laugh, and said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, there. Don't do that, don't do that." He put his hands on her shoulders, and said, "Hey, c'mon, loosen up. I didn't mean it that way. Really."

She looked up at him, her face filled with anger now, and she said, "What the hell did you mean by it then?"

He sighed, and shook his head. "I just...it was funny to me, because you did exactly what Cap is always telling me to do. 'Dammit Nalan, you get hit, stay fucking put! You get up again, and you're just twice as likely to get hit!'" He chuckled, and then turned serious. "It didn't make you a coward. Hell, I got shot on my first patrol because I froze."

Melara's expression shifted now, from one of anger to one of incredulity. "_You_ froze up? Mr. Vibrodagger himself?" She almost started laughing now, and Korwin grinned wryly.

"Yeah, I did. The shooting started, and everyone else just dropped. We were in this stand of trees, and everyone gets behind one except me. I didn't even get below the top of the grass. I just stood there, like a fucking dummy, until some asshole decided to shoot me in the arm. Then I went for cover." One corner of his mouth curled up in a little half-smile, and he started walking slowly. "At least you were fighting _before_ you got shot. If I'd been hit in the head, or the chest, I might never have fired a shot. I was really just standing there."

"Wow...so what happened when they shot you?" She asked, walking along with him, keeping pace easily with his slow, even strides.

He shrugged. "I snapped out of it. I started fighting back. Chucked a grenade and started blasting away."

"Well, obviously it didn't end too badly, or you wouldn't be here." She said.

He nodded. "We only lost one that day. So no, it wasn't too bad." His thoughts turned to Tandro then, and the other's they'd lost on Gnazt. His vision began to get a bit blurry, and he realized that he was starting to cry. He tried to surreptitiously wipe the tears away, but failed.

"It's okay Sir. I cry sometimes too." She said quietly.

Despite the reassurance from Melara, he forced the tears back down. "Well, I try not to." His voice was raw with emotion, and he inwardly cursed himself for it. He stopped, and turned to Melara, and said, "Look, can you stop calling me sir? It bothers me. Call me Nalan, or make up a nickname, or something." The last bit was muttered, but still audible.

Melara seemed to be thrown off track by his last words, but she nodded her head slowly. After a moment, she said, "Magic."

"What?" Korwin asked. "Magic what?"

"You. That's your nickname. Magic." She said with a bright grin.

He raised an eyebrow at that, and said, "Why?"

She looked at him like as though it should have been obvious. "Well, because you get all those weird feelings that everyone's always talking about. And the thing with the tusken's in the camp that night? I almost shit my panties when I heard you yelling. And then to find out that not only did you waste three of them with your vibrodagger, but you got two more with one of their weapons. And you just woke up, because something didn't feel right?" She cocked her head to the side, and smiled again. "Magic."

Korwin rolled his eyes, and then said, "Why not something fierce, and deadly? Something big and powerful, like Rancor, or, or, or, Shark, or something like that. A predator or something."

Melara shook her blonde head and said, "Because that's not who you are." Just then, Korwin heard someone shouting for Melara. It was Kreth, who'd become something like a big sister to her, despite the fact that she was younger. She turned her head to look, waved to Kreth, and then said to Korwin, "I'm gonna go talk to Kreth. See you later...Magic." She grinned and walked away from him.

"Oh well," he sighed, "better than boma."

Deciding that maybe a nap would be better than a walk, he headed back to his tent. He took off his boots, stripped off his jumpsuit, and climbed under the sheets on his cot. From there, it was short box ride to dreamland.

* * *

"That was the start of the Magic thing. She called me that in front of a few people, and then they started calling me that, and then it just spread. The name stuck too. Even my squad started calling me Magic. Except for Haslin, he always called me boss." 

Laina laughed lightly, and said, "You didn't like the name then?"

He waved his hands in a half-hearted protest, and said, "No, I liked it fine. As far as nicknames go, it actually wasn't that bad. And I really did like Jenna. She was a good soldier, despite her early insecurities, and she did some great things." He took a sip of his water, and set the glass down.

Laina looked down at her notes, and then checked the time. "Well, looks like it's about time for lunch." She smiled at Korwin, and he smiled at her. Or possibly the idea of lunch.

"I'm on it." He said, standing from his seat. "How about some Nubian delivery. My treat again."


	15. Soldier 13

This one is a little longer than my other chapters, but it just didn't feel finished where I'd originally planned on ending it. To those of you who have been following the story, thanks for reading. To those of you who have posted your comments in reviews, thank you as well. More reviews are always helpful, though, as it's the only way for me to know what you all think. So remember, any comments or constructive criticisms that anyone has are welcome. Really.

Once again, thanks for reading.

* * *

Feeling rejuvenated after a good meal of fasi and herb-encrusted nerf roast, Korwin emitted a contented sigh and said, "I guess I'll pick up where I left off then." He took a small sip of water, and set his glass down. He closed his eyes, and a wistful smile spread over his face. "We continued with our ambushes, and damn if we weren't brilliant!" He opened his eyes, and the smile faded. "But all good things come to an end. For almost three weeks we were in the field every other night. We'd go out at night, Kreth and I would find a spot, and we'd wait for them to come by. We never had to change places once we set up. They always came. Kreth and I started to get a feel for how they worked, their grasp of tactics.

"They were smart fighters though. The desert was their home, and they were a part of it, just as much as the sands, the wraids, the bantha. We were the interlopers."

Laina nodded her head, understanding what he was saying. "Did something happen that changed the situation?" She asked, her voice cautiously neutral.

He eyes grew hard, and he said, "You could say that."

* * *

Something was wrong, of that Korwin was sure. His guts were twisting themselves into knots, and he could feel sweat rolling down the back of his neck, despite the relative coolness of the night. They'd found the spot, and he was sure they'd made their insertion undetected. But there was something in the back of his head, a voice almost, telling him that they were being watched. The brightness of the moon wasn't helping his anxiety any either. He stopped, and Kreth looked back a moment later. She stopped as well, and raised an eyebrow in query.

Korwin looked back at Kierse, who shook his head minutely. He raised an eyebrow as well, and then looked back to Haslin and Jenrol. Looking back to Korwin, he shook his head. Korwin frowned, and looked around. They were currently moving along the base of a large, horseshoe shaped dune. It rose in a gentle incline to an elevation of roughly twenty feet, and in the center was a large depression, some eighty feet in diameter. Running out of it was a long draw that led between two dunes, somewhat similar to the one they'd set up their first ambush in.

The recon squads had taken to using the sandpeople's methods of movement through the dunes, and had also adopted many of their guerilla tactics. Korwin and his larry's had moved in through the draw that Korwin believed the tusken's would take to get them closer to Alliance territory. After that, they'd hugged the right side of the horseshoe, and had made it almost opposite the draw's entrance. That's when Korwin had felt it. And it was becoming worse. Feeling the knot of apprehension grow inside him, he motioned for Kreth to move out, double time, and indicated the right side of the horseshoe. He wanted out of that depression, and fast.

They ran as quickly as they could, while still retaining some semblance of stealth, but Korwin had a sinking feeling that stealth was a lost cause. They made it to the base of the horseshoe's far right prong, and began scrambling up the side. They were nearing the top, when three shots rang out over the empty desert plains. Korwin heard a grunt behind him, and turned to look. Jenrol was grimacing in pain, lying flat on his stomach. Korwin scrambled back down to him, and said, "Where you hit?"

Jenrol groaned softly, and said, "My legs. Both legs, Magic." He looked Korwin in the eye, and said, "Get the fuck out of here. If you try to take me, he'll get you too."

Korwin shook his head, and said, "The fuck you say?" He crouched down and grabbed hold of Jenrol. Looking up to Kierse, who was flattened on top of the dune, he hissed, "Come get his pack. We've got to get him out of here. Kreth, call for extraction, now." Kreth pulled out her comm, and began calling for extraction, and Kierse stood up in a low crouch and ran down to Korwin and Jenrol.

Kierse muttered, "Why hasn't the fucker fired again?" His answer came a moment later, as another shot rang out. Kierse cursed, as the slug slammed into the sand inches below his foot. "Fucking sniper! He was waiting for more damn targets!"

Korwin looked up to the top of the dune, and said tersely, "Haslin, find his ass, and vape him!" He didn't stop to see if Haslin was complying with his orders. Haslin was always reliable.

They got Jenrol's pack off, and Kierse picked it up and began hot-footing it up the dune. Korwin lifted Jenrol onto his shoulders with a grunt of exertion, and started walking as fast as he could up the dune. A fifth shot sounded, and a sixth. Korwin felt a slug impact on his pack, and cursed loudly, just as Kierse yelled, "He shot me in the fucking ass!"

A moment later another slugthrower sounded off, this one from a different spot, and then a third joined in. Kierse shouted, "Sithspit!" and lowered his head as several more slugs pounded into the sand around him. Korwin felt two more slugs hit his backpack, and the force of them striking drove him to his knees. Kierse crested the dune, and dove over the top, just as Haslin fired off a shot.

Korwin heard a pained cry from one of the Tusken snipers, and the other two sent several more red-hot slugs over in retaliation. Korwin felt one of them graze his left thigh, but knew that it had done little more than take off some skin and put a hole in his jumpsuit. He crested the rise, and dropped to his knees on the other side of the dune. Sliding Jenrol gently to the ground, he said, "Hey, how's those legs feeling buddy?" He got no reply. Another shot from Haslin blazed across the depression and silenced a second tusken sniper.

It was then that Korwin noticed that Jenrol's mouth was stained red. His eyes were open, unblinking, and his chest was still. Korwin grimaced, as he felt a spike of pain stab through him. Despite his sick feeling that his friend was dead, his hand was steady as he felt for a pulse. There was none. He rolled his friend over, and hung his head at what he saw. Three bullet holes. He reached over his shoulder and felt his backpack. Bullet holes. Jenrol's body must have slowed them down enough that they didn't go all the way through his pack. Jenrol had saved his life, and he hadn't even had a choice. Korwin made a sound halfway between a sob and a laugh, and then choked it off, wiping the tears from his eyes. Now wasn't the time.

A third shot sounded from Haslin's sporting blaster just as the box flew in and touched down. Korwin picked Jenrol up and trotted to the box. He laid him on his back in the center of the deck, and for once, he was the first one on. When everyone else was boarded, he met each of their eyes. Kreth looked down at Jenrol, and then turned away, tears flowing freely from her eyes. Kierse, kneeling on the deck due to his wounded buttock, picked up Jenrol's still warm hand and stared at the body, his expression one of mixed grief and anger. Haslin looked briefly, and then began checking his rifle, his eyes blinking rapidly in a futile attempt to stem the flow of tears. But Korwin didn't cry yet. It still wasn't the time.

He heard the pilot and the co-pilot talking in soft, somber tones. They were radioing to HQ, letting them know that they had one wounded and one KIA. It wasn't often that a larry was killed, and it never failed to strike a disquieting chord with all of the troops when it did inevitably happen. It was bad for morale. For Korwin it was just bad.

He'd lost a good friend, to be sure. And as much as he hated to detach himself, and think of the logistical consequences, he had no choice but to do so. He'd need a new medic. Preferably someone trained, but he didn't think that any company CO would be willing to part with a fully-trained medic. Not even Borlin. Not now. Avery had started training as a medic a few weeks earlier, but even that might be a stretch.

When they landed, Korwin and Kierse gently picked up Jenrol and laid him on the waiting stretcher. An army nurse covered him with a sheet, and then activated the repulors on the stretcher. As they were about to take the body away, Korwin said, "Wait!" The nurses stopped, and Korwin reached over and uncovered Jenrol's face. Taking one last look at his dead friend, he carefully removed Jenrol's bush hat and then covered his face again.

Korwin stood and watched as they pushed his friend away to be zipped up in a black bag, and shipped to the fleet in space for transport home to his family. He'd never see him again. That thought hurt, and with it came a flood of guilt when he realized that if he'd been more careful, if he'd carried Jenrol in front of him, Korwin would have taken those shots instead. He might have been killed, but his backpack would have absorbed enough of the damage to allow him to get Jenrol to safety.

When they'd finally disappeared, Korwin looked slowly around himself. Kierse, Kreth, and Haslin stood around him, all of them watching him. He gave one last look in the direction they'd taken Jenrol, and then said, "Let's go debrief."

* * *

"I just couldn't believe it." Korwin said, his voice slightly hoarse. "He didn't even make a sound, you know? Like he knew if he had, I would have stopped; then we'd both have been dead." He looked down at his hands, clasped tightly together in his lap, and without looking back up, he said in a quavering voice, "I really think that it was defining moment for me...it changed the way I looked at the war."

"In what way?" Laina asked gently.

"After that, I really started to hate the Imps, hate the Sandpeople. They were killing my friends, and I stopped thinking about the fact that I was killing theirs. I stopped thinking of them as people. It opened something up too. It didn't always happen, but sometimes, I'd have these little...moments. We'd be in combat or something, and I would just get this strange detached sensation, and things would start happening. The battle would just fall into place for me, you know? Everything would be easy."

"Did that help your fellow troops?"

"I suppose so. Like I said, everything worked out when that happened."

Laina looked into his eyes, her expression serious, and said, "Were you satisfied with that?"

Korwin looked at her as if she'd slapped him. "Hell no! Jenrol was still dead, so it was a little late, wasn't it?" He glared at her for a moment longer before his espression softened. He shook his head, and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap."

Laina held up a hand to forestall any further apologies. "It's alright Mr. Nalan. We can take a break if you'd like."

Korwin took a deep breath, and said, "No, that's fine. We'll keep going."

"Very well."

* * *

Korwin awoke with a start, and sat up slowly. Judging from the soft glow outside the tent wall, Tatoo I was just beginning it's climb into the morning sky. The rest of K company was up already, getting showered and heading to morning chow. Not his squadmates though. They all slept peacefully on their cots. Korwin rubbed his face, trying to get the sleep out. He yawned quietly and stood up. Putting on the bottom half of his jumpsuit, he zipped it to his waist, and thought to himself, _They really need to get us pants and shirts. _Throwing on a tan tank top, Korwin left the tent.

He thought of heading to chow, but he wasn't really that hungry. Instead, he walked to the edge of camp, and climbed to the top of a small sand dune. His gaze fixed itself on a swirling dust-devil several miles to the southeast. _That's just about where Jenrol died._ Korwin thought to himself. Then a voice whispered in the back of his mind, _Where you let him die._ His dark thoughts were disrupted by the alarm klaxon chirping loudly three times. That was the signal for the combat troops to muster in the landing area. Korwin cursed, and started running for his tent. On the way, he spotted Borlin sprinting towards his command tent. He shouted at him, "Cap, what's going on!"

Borlin turned his head and sighted Korwin. He slowed down long enough for Korwin to catch up, and said, "Imps are coming down the Xelric Draw, heading towards Mos Espa. They're still in the canyon, haven't reached the open sand yet. Tatooine High Command thinks they're planning on re-occupying the city, and then striking out over the desert and attacking us."

"What about us?" Korwin asked, and Borlin knew he was referring to the LRIS.

"You guys gear up like you're going out on an ambush, but don't worry about your packs. Nothing but what you need to fight. They've already got R and W Company's larry's getting ready to go and booby trap the shit out of the far southern end of the Draw. You guys are inserting in an hour, and I'll brief you in forty-five. Get your squad ready."

Korwin nodded his head, snapped a quick salute, and then hurried back to his tent. When he got there, he saw his squadmates getting their combat gear together, as well as the 3rd platoon regulars throwing on their body armor, helmets and gear. Raising his voice to be heard over the voices in the tent, he said, "3rd platoon recon, listen up. We're gearing up for an ambush patrol, and we're going in extra light today. Nothing but water, weapons and ammo...and I mean nothing. Briefing is in forty-five, insertion is in an hour."

His squad immediately started getting themselves ready, and did so in silence. There was no question and answer today, as there normally would be as they were getting ready for a mission. There was nothing to know, other than they were going to the Draw, and they had no time to prepare other than to arm themselves and fix their camo.

When they were all ready it was almost time for their briefing. The regulars had long since finished arming up and been lifted to Mos Espa to set up the city's defenses. Of course, they didn't have to tape up or paint themselves. Korwin looked over his troops and then said, "Alright, let's go." They walked out of the tent, and over to the landing pad. There sat a single box, it's engines running, waiting for them to arrive. Borlin stood next to it in full combat gear, his helmet sitting on the deck of the box.

Korwin saluted, as did the rest of his squad, and he said, "I feel compelled to remind the Captain that my squad currently lacks a medic."

Borlin nodded his head, and said, "I know that Corporal, but there's nothing I can do for you right now."

Korwin stared at him in disbelief, and then said, "Avery Azen's been training to be a medic ever since Sgt. Omiai over in 2nd platoon got vaped last month, right?"

Borlin nodded his head, and said, "I don't like the idea of taking another medic from my regulars Korwin. I love recon, but that's asking a lot."

"I need a medic for my troops sir." He said firmly, holding his ground.

Borlin's jaw clenched, and he exhaled hard through his nose, his nostrils flaring. Finally, he said, "Fine, pick him up when you drop me off. We brief on the way, time's running short."

Korwin nodded and waved his squad onto the box. He hopped on the edge after the others had boarded, and braced himself as the small transport rocketed off the ground. He listened closely as Borlin shouted their briefing over the wind rushing past the open transport doors. "After the stop in Mos Espa, you will be lifted into the Xelric Draw. The pilot's going to drop you about a mile in. That should put you close to a half-mile in front of their scouting elements. Your job is to take out their scouts...all of them.

"An aerial flyby produced a count of roughly twenty advance scouts. After they're dealt with, fall back to a safe position and wait for the enemy column to pass you by. Enemy troop count based on the flyby was estimated at close to five thousand. They've got walkers too, so don't try anything stupid after you've vaped the scouts, you got it?"

Korwin nodded his head, and the rest of his unit did so as well. The rest of the ride to Mos Espa went quickly, and they landed in the market square where they'd run into the roadblock. He saw the doorway he'd been shot in, and saw a heavy repeating blaster cannon set up in the stall that the wounded Private Melara had taken cover in. It was manned by some fresh-faced Bothan replacement, the terror and anxiety produced by a long wait displayed clearly on his face.

He turned his attention to the soldiers setting up in the square, and caught sight of Avery sitting on a stack of crates, smoking a tabaac roll. He grinned as Korwin approached, and said, "Damn man...I thought we was gonna be fightin' them sandfleas for fuckin' ever!" He and Korwin did their handshake, and he offered the tabaac roll to Korwin.

Korwin shook his head no, and said, "I need you Ave."

Avery started laughing mid-drag, and doubled over choking and coughing as bluish smoke poured from his nostrils and mouth. When he'd finished laughing, he stood up and wiped tears from his eyes, saying, "Damn Magic, if I'da known you swung like that, you'da never slept at my house when we was kids!"

Korwin swatted Avery upside his helmeted head, and said, "Quit fucking around. You know Jenrol got hit, right?" Avery nodded his head, his expression somber now. "Well I need a medic. You're the only one Borlin'll give me because you ain't fully trained. So I need you to come with me."

Avery eyed him suspiciously, and said, "What for?"

"We're going into the canyon to hit the Imp's advance scout force."

Avery shook his head, a lazy grin on his face. "Fuck that. I like all my body parts where they are, thanks much."

"That's an order Private." Korwin growled, his face turning mean.

Avery stared at him incredulously, and said, "You're gonna pull rank on _me_! Motherfucker, that's some bullshit!"

"So's your fucking attitude! You sound like a little bitch! What would Juri say if he heard you pussin' out like this?" Korwin snapped back, his ire raised.

Avery glared, and opened his mouth as if to say something else, then he abruptly snapped it shut. His glare faded, and he said, "He'd ask me if my pussy hurt." He chuckled at that, and Korwin had to laugh a little too. He could just see Juri now, standing next to Avery with a sarcastic sneer on his face, whispering in his ear; _What's the matter Ave? Your pussy hurt? That it?_ That was Juri's MO. He could be a real dick sometimes. At least he was an equal opportunity dick. He fucked everybody.

Avery shook his head and flicked his smoke away. "Alright man."

Korwin nodded and said, "Good. Lose the helmet. Body armor too; it's too bulky, and it makes noise."

Avery said, "You gotta be fuckin' kiddin' me."

Korwin said, "Nope. Just do it." Avery did as he was told, and then put his combat harness back on. Korwin pulled his tape out and began taping him up, and then said, "Pick up your rifle and jump." Avery did so, and Korwin put away his tape. Handing him a stick of greasepaint, he said, "Paint up your bald domepiece with this. Neck, arms, all that shit too. All exposed skin. Do it in the box though."

Avery took the greasepaint and nodded his head. "What about them bush hats? I get one of those too?" He asked as they trotted over to the box.

"Yeah, but not right now." Korwin replied. They hopped on the box, and Korwin showed him how to properly apply the greasepaint. Within a couple minutes, they had arrived at the insertion point, so Korwin finished painting Avery. He felt a little strange doing a grown man's make up, but he was faster than Ave was. When he was finished, he said, "Okay let's move out. Kreth keep a close fucking eye out for the enemy."

A moment later, another box came in for a landing just as theirs took off. Five recon troops that Korwin didn't recognize hopped out, equipped identically to Korwin's. One of them, a tall iridonian whose horns were painted to look like jagged rocks, stepped forward. He looked back and forth between Korwin and the rest of his squad, and said, "I'm Lt. Drendel, 1st Battalion A Company Recon."

Korwin stepped forward to identify himself as his own squad's leader, and said, "Cpl. Nalan, 3rd Battalion K Company Recon. Good to see a few more larry's out here. You assisting?"

Lt. Drendel nodded his head, and said, "Scouting elements."

"Good, the more the merrier. I suggest we start looking for a spot to ambush from though. They'll be here before long." Drendel nodded his agreement, and he and Korwin signaled for their squads to move out. As they were doing so, Haslin said, "Hey boss, why don't ya'll go ahead. I spotted a nice ledge when we were coming in on the box. Looked like it had a little cave too. I'm gonna set up there."

Korwin trusted his sniper's judgement implicitly, and said, "One click, and you're on the clock."

Haslin nodded and moved off. A moment later, Korwin noticed that Drendel's sniper was heading off on his own as well. Korwin turned to Drendel and said, "We should set up a crossfire...your squad on one side, mine on another. I'll try to find some high ground to get up on, you should do the same. One click on the comm to start the sniper's shooting; two for the ambush."

Drendel raised an eyebrow, and said, "So now the Corporal's giving the orders?"

Kierse stepped forward, and hissed, "Now's not the time for a power trip. Magic knows his shit. He wouldn't be here otherwise."

Drendel looked thoughtful, stroking his chin as he replied, "How old are you Corporal?"

Korwin supressed a sigh, and struggled to keep the irritation from showing on his face. "I'm seventeen sir...almost eighteen."

Drendel's horned head bobbed once in an affirmative gesture, and he said, "Alright troops, you heard the man. We take the right. Zymba, find us a ledge or an incline we can set up on. I suggest we set our comms to the same channel. Say...17?"

Korwin chuckled, and nodded his head. Once they'd done that, he said, I'd radio your sniper and give him the orders.

He looked to Korwin and said, "See you on the other side kid." He grinned and moved silently off with his squad. A moment later, Korwin heard him relaying the attack orders to his sniper.

Korwin stood there dumbfounded for a moment before he snapped out of it. He turned to Kreth, and signaled her to move out. They'd already done too much talking. Time was dangerously short. Kreth hurried off, and after a minute of searching, she found a steep scree slope that led to a small ledge. She set up on the ledge, and Korwin hid himself on the scree slope. He sent Kierse and Avery across the canyon to lie in wait on the flat ground.

Avery and Kierse were some twenty feet further into the Draw than Korwin and Kreth, with Drendel's closest troops being another thirty or so feet past them. Once last of the Imperial scout team had reached Korwin's position, he'd give Haslin his fire order. Once Haslin and Drendel's sniper had thinned out the enemy a bit and put some fear into them, the recon units would attack.

He waited almost ten minutes before he sighted the lead elements. He gave the spotting click to Haslin, and he heard the single click reply in his earpiece, meaning that Haslin had seen them. A moment later, Drendel's sniper clicked in as well. Korwin's insides began doing the familiar pre-combat flip-flops, and he deliberately slowed his breathing to relax himself. He watched with cold detachment as the first of the Imperial scouting element passed by his position. Once, he might have felt remorse at making widows and orphans out of these men's wives and children. Not now.

As the last of them passed him by, he clicked once more on the comm, and two sandtroopers were felled immediately afterward. The two shots had been fired so close together that it had almost sounded like one. The canyon walls caused the shots to echo, and the confused sandtrooopers began futilely trying to find cover. There wasn't any though. That's why they'd chosen this spot.

Two more Imps dropped dead, and the scouts began to cautiously retreat, heads turning this way and that. Korwin could hear one of them frantically shouting into his in-helmet comm, and knew that he was calling for reinforcements. Korwin's face morphed into a hateful mask, and he violently depressed the button on his comm twice.

The sandtrooper's voice was drowned out in a storm of blaster fire that came from every direction conceivable. Korwin and Kreth, as well as two of Drendel's troops, were firing from the high ground behind and in front, while Avery and Kierse, Drendel and his assistant team leader were positioned similarly on the low ground opposite their squadmates. The Imps, stunned by the sudden attack, reacted badly and began tightening their ranks, making a prime target for the rebel elites. Korwin and Drendel had created a perfect killing field.

Korwin shot to his feet and blasted three Imps in quick succession, his aim precise as he pumped three shots into each one's torso. He sat down quickly, and several bolts passed over his head. He saw a trooper pointing at him, and quickly shot him through the head. He removed a plasma grenade from his vest, jammed on the priming button and threw it towards the center of the group of Imps.

One of them saw it coming, and tried to push several of his comrades out of the way, but they were too close together, and he did nothing more than put them off balance. The grenade struck on of them in the chest and exploded, sending peices of him flying everywhere. Several others went flying through the air, some missing limbs now.

Korwin tuned out the agonized screams of the badly wounded sandtroopers that the grenade had failed to kill. He didn't bother with them, instead whipping his rifle around and firing six shots at a trooper who was preparing to fire on him. Two of the bolts struck the Imp's right leg, but the other four stitched a line from his abdomen to his neck. The Imp fell heavily to the ground, his gloved hands flying to his ruined throat.

Korwin watched several others drop, the result of deadly accurate fire from the other recon troops in his and Drendel's squad. He jumped to his feet again and dashed to the bottom of the scree slope, shouting, "Fucking finish em' off dammit!"

Out of twenty that had entered the kill zone, only six remained, and Korwin charged straight at them, firing his blaster rifle from the hip. Kreth was hard on his heels, and she shouted, "Grenade!" as she hurled a plasma grenade past Korwin's head. Korwin slid to a stop, and dove for the side of the canyon as the grenade exploded in front of the remaining sandtroopers. He rolled back to his feet just in time to see Avery and one of Drendels troops finish them off with a concentrated burst of fire from both directions.

Korwin raised his hand high in the air, and gave the signal to move out double time. They started running down the Draw in the direction of the open sands and Mos Espa , and Drendel's squad fell in some thirty feet behind them. They'd been running for close on six minutes, and were nearing the end of the canyon, when Korwin called a halt. He signaled for everyone to find a hide, and then looked around for one himself.

He found one, in the form of a small depression in the canyon wall. It had been smoothed out by and ancient river eddy, and was just large enough for Korwin to press himself into. He picked up a handful of the sand that was scattered across the hard canyon floor and rubbed it into the greasepaint on his arms, hands and face. He then removed his bush hat and did the same to his hair. He stuffed his bush hat in his his thigh pocket, then closed his eyes and waited.

It was only a couple minutes before Korwin heard the heavy, rhythmic thump of Stormtroopers marching across the canyon floor, and the loud mechanical creaking of Imperial scout walkers. It was almost twenty before the first ones passed him by. The canyon was almost thirty feet wide, and so far as Korwin could tell when he cracked one eye briefly, sandtroopers filled it wall to wall. He closed his eye again, and waited in perfect stillness for the Imps to pass. His breathing was shallow and slow, and he could feel his heartbeat slowing down. It began to echo softly in his ears, as it had only once before. But it was different now.

The drums of war were beating in his mind again, and he knew now that it was his heartbeat, fueled by some primal spirit that rested deep within him. His mind suddenly became clearer, and as he heard the first booby trap explode, some fifty yards ahead of him, the coming battle came into perfect focus. The first sounds of battle sounded from the desert just west of Mos Espa where the draw opened up, as the forward elements of the Imps main force reached the edge of the city.

Still he bided his time, waiting for the right moment. Three walkers in all passed by, the last of them well ahead of the stormtroopers rear element. He knew that they were confused, fearful. He didn't know how he knew, but he knew. After almost ten minutes had passed, he knew that the column was nearing it's end. He didn't open his eyes; he didn't need to. He slowly reached up to his combat harness and primed two plasma grenades. He rolled one of them forward, and gave the other a good shove towards the approaching rear elements. He waited seconds, and then heard dual explosions, thunderously loud in the confines of the canyon.

It wasn't scripted, but he knew that both squads would respond. He clicked his comm twice, and then exploded from his little hollow. He could hear the reports of sporting blaster's from somewhere nearby, and then the canyon erupted into mayhem. It almost happened perfectly. Drendel's squad behind, Korwin's in front, they effectively cut off the last phalanx of sandtroopers from their comrades advancing towards Mos Espa. The grenades would be written off by the troops ahead as more booby traps, and they'd continue on.

For Korwin, everything seemed to be happening in slow motion. He watched with interest as three stormtroopers ran to within twenty feet of him, and began setting up in shooting stances. It looked as though they were moving through water. Korwin casually raised his rifle and sent three shots into each Imp's torso, before turning on another and blasting him away.

He saw Kreth crouching behind a boulder, popping up to shoot down an Imp every couple of seconds. They were still everywhere though. The logical part of Korwin's mind was cursing him for a fool, telling him this was suicide and they were all going to die. But something else told him this was what needed to happen. He continued firing away, and then had to take cover and change his blaster pak. He looked around the battlefield, and saw Avery sitting behind the same boulder as Kreth, a hole burned through his right arm. He didn't seem to notice it though, and fought as though he was unaffected by it.

He watched for a moment, his eye critical, before he realized that the Imps were in a state of panic. They had no idea what was happening. They were shooting at everything, including their own shadows. He watched as one Imp bumped into another from behind, and was gunned by his startled comrade. They were well and truly panicked.

After almost ten minutes of fighting, the troops on both sides were running out of ammo. The sniper's had long since stopped shooting. All of the other recon troops had exhausted their supply of grenades, and had done so at great cost to the enemy. He knew most were running low on ammo by now. Korwin himself had half a blaster pak left, and he could tell that the remaining stormtroopers were firing much less often. Their situation wasn't bad, Korwin felt. The Imp's were still afraid, now more than ever.

So far, Kierse had been hit in the leg, Avery had taken a shot in the arm, and one of Drendel's had been shot in the face at point blank range, killing her instantly. He had no idea how many stormtroopers were left, and still felt as though he were moving through a dreamland in which everything was under his complete control.

He shot down four more stormtroopers, and then realized he was out of ammunition. He had two remaining grenades, and he primed and threw them both. He didn't know when, but at some point his blaster pistol had fallen from it's holster. He didn't worry. Something would present itself. He gazed around the rock he was taking cover behind and saw that the remaining stormtroopers were trying to take cover as well. A few more shots rang out from both sides, and the fighting ceased.

A strange silence came over the battle, and Korwin felt his gaze pulled towards the canyon wall directly next to him. There was a small gap between the boulder and the canyon wall, and Korwin saw the beginnings of a small crawlspace created by a low overhang. His keen ears picked up the words, "...out of ammo...fight our way out." and he knew what to do.

He set his rifle down, and slipped his vibrodagger out of it's sheath. Lying on his belly, he squeezed himself into the narrow crawlspace, and began inching his way along the canyon wall under the overhang. When he came parallel with the stormtroopers, he saw that there were only around twenty left. He didn't bother with an exact count.

They were all scattered about the canyon floor, behind various boulders, and wall outcroppings. He saw two easy targets not ten feet away. They were crouched behind a boulder, their backs to him. He slid noiselessly out of the overhang and slowly got to his feet. Staying low, he crept quietly up behind the two stormtroopers.

Without thought, he stood to his full height and gave the one on the right a sharp kick to the back of the head. He shot forward, and his head impacted violently with the unforgiving side of the boulder, his helmet clacking loudly on the stone. He dropped to the ground, stunned. Before his companion could react, Korwin thumbed on his vibrodagger and plunged it into the side of his neck. He jerked it towards his body with a rough sawing motion, sending blood spraying across his hand and wrist. He yanked the dagger out and slammed it into the neck of the stunned Imp lying on the ground.

Korwin heard footsteps coming up behind him, and turned around. A sandtrooper was charging at him, holding his blaster rifle by the heavy barrel. He stood stock still as the Imp approached, and heard Kreth's warning shout as he swung his rifle at Korwin's head. Korwin watched as the butt of the rifle slowly sailed towards his dome. Just as it was about to hit him, he ducked under the blow.

Bobbing up fast on the stormtroopers now exposed side, he quickly slipped the vibrodagger into the small gap between his codpiece and his breastplate. Sliding the blade deftly across, he slipped it out below the the ribs and pushed the dying Imp over with his other hand. He heard a shout from one of the other recon troops, and turned to see Kierse and Avery engaging in melee with two stormtroopers. Korwin didn't need to see, but he could hear the others joining the fray as well.

Two sandtroopers advanced cautiously on him, their blaster rifles held like clubs, ready to attack. One approached on his left, the other on his right. Korwin kept his gaze between the two of them, and maneuvered his back to the wall so that they couldn't get behind him. The two Imps shared a look, and then advanced suddenly, the one on the right going high, the one on the left going low.

Korwin thrust his vibrodagger into the elbow joint of the stormtrooper on the right, and his attack was aborted as he jerked his arms back and cried out in pain, his weapon falling from his hand. He raised his leg and grunted as he caught the other blow on his left shin. Pain blossomed in his leg, but it quickly faded in his trance-like state.

Before the Imp could recover from his first attack, Korwin thrust his dagger at his throat. The Imp twisted to the side, and the blow glanced off his chestplate. The Imp used the motion to wind up for a backhanded swing, which he sent at Korwin's ribcage. Korwin tried to side step the blow, but it knicked his ribcage. He felt a small stinging pain, but dismissed it immediately. Feinting high with his dagger, he drew the Imps guard up to his neck, and then lashed out with a vicious kick into the side of his knee. Korwin heard a wet snap, and the Imps agonized scream filtered through the comm.

The sandtrooper fell to the ground, and began trying to scramble backwards. Failing, he tried to stand. He made it, almost, but collapsed again. Korwin took two quick steps over to him, crouched beside him, and finished him off. The Imp tried to fight him off, but Korwin slapped his pain-weakened blows aside and stabbed him in the throat. Standing up, he looked around and saw that there weren't any stormtroopers left to fight. The few survivor's were running as fast as they could back the way they'd come, the one he'd stabbed in the arm among them.

The canyon floor was littered with white-armored corpses, and as Korwin began to come down off his strange combat-high, he realized that they'd just wiped out a force much, much larger than their own. His bloody hands began shaking as he realized that he'd just sent ten troops against what must have been close to a hundred. He looked around at all of the Imperial dead, and then over at the corpse of Drendel's assistant team leader, her face now a burned ruin because of the blaster bolt that had taken her life.

He sat down on the ground, and looked over at the approaching Lt. Drendel. His face was neutral as he crouched next to Korwin, and said, "What the hell was that? Sgt. Nemeira's dead now, you know that?" He asked, his voice betraying none of the emotion that his words did.

Korwin nodded his head, and said softly, "I'm sorry."

Drendel looked around at the bodies of the dead sandtrooper's, and said, "What made you do that Corporal?"

Korwin looked over at him, and said honestly, "It felt right."

Drendel shook his head and stood up. "I hope her family is okay with that." His voice was sad, but his expression remained flat. "We probably saved a lot of lives in Mos Espa by doing this."

Korwin nodded his head, and stood up, his shakes subsiding now. He said, "We need to call a box. We need to get back to Mos Espa before the Imps push through the desert defenses."

Drendel nodded his agreement, pulled out his comm and switched it to Mos Espa's CP frequency. "Larry 1A, and Larry 3K requesting extraction."

A moment later, he put his comm away, and said, "They'll be here in a few. I'll activate my beacon in five."

Korwin walked over to his squad and said, "Extraction's in a few minutes. We'll be back in Mos Espa by lunchtime." He grinned, and sat down on a large rock that Kierse had been hiding behind. Pulling out his own comm, he called the sniper's in for extraction.

Kierse looked up at him, his expression serious, and he said, "Magic, that was some crazy shit man." He shook his head, and Korwin noticed that his hands were still shaking. "I just...what the fuck happened man?"

Korwin shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know."

Kierse stood up and said, "There were only ten of us, and we had no ammo, man. That's crazy. That's impossible."

"Apparently not. They didn't have ammo either." Kreth said. She'd kept silent to that point, but now she was looking at Kierse, her eyes squinted against the sun. "I don't know what it was, but I felt something too. Everything just slowed down a little. It was like...I knew what they'd do before they did it."

Kierse looked back and forth between the two of them and then muttered, "You're both fuckin' crazy." He walked over to Avery and sat down. Avery was sitting against the canyon wall, his face calm, sipping water from his canteen. As they began conversing, Haslin and Drendel's sniper trotted up the canyon to the waiting squads.

Haslin strode up to Korwin, and said, "Sorry we couldn't help you out with that last bit, boss. Ran out of ammo."

Korwin shrugged. "S'alright. What did you see?"

Haslin shook his head. "A fucking massacre. I don't know how you guys did it. They should have mowed you down the second you stood up."

Korwin's gaze drifted up to the deep blue sky, the bright glare of the twin suns invading his periphery. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. The mixed smells of Tatooine's hot, dusty air and coppery blood filled his nostrils. He breathed out slowly, and said softly, "They were afraid, Haslin, and confused. They tricked themselves into thinking there were more of us I think. They were shooting at walls, shooting each other. They panicked." He opened his eyes, and let his gaze come slide to the south and east. He could see a box approaching high over the canyon, it's door guns blasting away at the Imps on the ground.

"Head's up folks, our ride is here." He stood up and picked up his rifle. He quickly retraced his steps from the battle, and found his blaster pistol lying next to a dead Imp who's legs were gone just above the ankle and who's chest armor was shattered and burnt from a plasma grenade. He didn't give a second glance to the dead Imp as he bent down and retrieved his pistol. He holstered it, and then made his way over to stand with his squad as they watched the box descend into the canyon.

Drendel's squad boarded first taking the floor space in the middle, with Korwin's troops all sitting in the doors. As the box lifted off, Korwin stared down at the carnage they had wrought. As the box flew higher, and began to jet towards Mos Espa, he eventually lost sight of the dead Imps. If this were the desert, they'd be completely buried within a day or two. But they were in the canyon. Instead, they'd probably dry out and mummify in the intense, dry heat. The sand people might push the corpses to the side, to make room for their bantha's to pass unhindered, but no more consideration would be given than that.

As they passed over the end of the canyon, the great battle in the desert came into full view. Alliance infantrymen and the Stormtroopers were as close as thirty feet in some places, the majority of both sides taking cover behind the crests of large dunes and firing at each other over the top. He watched as a company of stormtroopers stood up and swarmed down the face of a dune, blaster rifles blazing away at the alliance side.

The Alliance troops behind their own dunes calmly fired down into the approaching mass of Imps, with several tossing grenades into their midst. In short order, the Imp company was in full retreat, with almost half their numbers down. Further down the line, two of the walkers lay in smoking heaps, while the third was stomping through an unprotected flank of the Alliance army, it's turbolasers sending up showers of Alliance troops with every blast.

Korwin watched until the battle was behind them, and then turned his eyes to Mos Espa. As they flew over the edge of the city, en route to the market square, Korwin was shocked to see civilians rounding up their children, and brining personal belongings into their homes. He turned to Avery, and said, "You seeing this shit? They're fucking staying!"

Avery shook his head, and said, "Would you want to leave again? 'Side's, where the fuck they gon' go?"

Korwin didn't reply, and as the box touched down in the main market square, he found himself deeply troubled. He slid off the edge of the box, and watched as it picked up a full load of infantry regulars and took off. He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around. It was Borlin. "Corporal, good job. Thanks to you, they walked right into the booby traps, and right into our waiting force in the desert."

Korwin shrugged off the praise, and said, "What now sir?"

Borlin grinned, and said, "Glad you asked, Corporal. Come with me."

* * *

"It was an incredibly long morning, and the rest of the day didn't get any better. About an hour after we got back to the market square, we hitched a ride with an infantry unit, and went out to the battle. We were sent out as a mobile ambush unit basically. We were supposed to run around the flanks, sneak up on the Imps, and take out a small group of them, and then quickly head back into the desert. After that, we'd regroup, pick another spot, and do it again."

Laina stared down at the wealth of information she'd just received. Looking up at Korwin, she said, "Well, I think we'll have to get there tomorrow. It seems as though we've gone a little later than planned."

He looked at his wrist chrono, and said, "Seems we have." Standing up, from his chair, he stretched, and then said, "Goodnight Laina. I'll see you in the morning." After bidding goodnight to the rest of the crew as well, he left the room.

Laina saved her work and shut down her datapad. "Time to go folks. Have a good night."


	16. Interlude: The Vacation

Korwin sat on the white-sand beach on the resort world of Darcell Kom, watching his eight year old daughter, Malea, playing in the gentle surf. He smiled as she waved at him, and then dove under a small crashing wave. Her mother stood nearby, a few feet closer to shore, immersed to mid-calf. He looked to his left, and smiled at his son, Avery, who was eating a sandwich. Avery caught his father's eye and smiled back, his mouth stuffed so full of sandwich that he could barely close it. "You need to take smaller bites son. You're lucky your mama is down in the water."

Avery gave a muffled giggle through his food, and began slowly chewing it. Korwin snorted and ruffled his son's dark auburn curls. His hair was like his mother's. They both had hair like their mother. Her vivid green eyes too. They had dark skin, but not as dark as his. More like dark caramel. Looking back out to the water, he saw his wife and daughter walking towards them. Eli sat down on the beach towel next to him and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. "The water's pretty warm. You should go swimming." She said, plucking at his white t-shirt.

Korwin grinned at her, his gaze filled with affection and he chuckled. "You just want to see my rippling muscles." He flexed his right bicep for effect, making the muscle pop up.

Eli laughed, and slapped his arm playfully. Malea laughed too, although she wasn't quite sure what she was laughing at. She sat down next to her brother and picked up a sandwich. Eli stopped laughing after a moment, and said, "Seriously Kory. You should get in the water."

He shrugged and looked away from her. "I don't want to get my shirt wet."

"Then take the shirt off." She said reasonably.

"I don't feel like it."

Eli heaved an exasperated sigh, her patience wearing thin, and said, "It was _your_ idea to come _here_ for vacation. _I_ suggested skiing at Ilum's Summerside Resort."

Korwin shuddered and leveled a feeble glare at her out of the corner of his eye. "I hate cold planets."

Eli rolled her eyes, and said softly, "Kory, you can't just sit on the beach the whole two weeks, waiting for all the other people to leave so you can take your shirt off. The kids want you to go in the water with them, Kory. No one is going to say anything about the scars."

Korwin held up a hand to forestall her. "Look, I'll go swimming later. I don't want to swim right now. I don't feel like it."

"Fine. Don't swim." Eli turned away, and picked up a sandwich, her demeanor almost cold.

Korwin sighed, and said peevishly, "I said I'd swim. Don't go getting all pissy because I don't want to swim _right now._"

Eli looked at him and said, "Kory, the children.", effectively cutting him off. She stared him in the eye and took a delicate bite of her sandwich.

Korwin looked at his children, and realized they were both staring at him. He said, "Sorry." Neither child responded, but instead returned to eating.

Malea and Avery finished their sandwiches, and Malea stood up, and said, "I'm gonna go play by the water."

Avery said, "Me too." He looked at his mom, and said, "Are you coming, mama?"

Eli nodded her head. "Yes." She gave Korwin one last look, and then stood up to follow her children down to the water's edge.

Korwin picked up his own sandwich, and began nibbling idly. He watched his children and wife playing in the water, and watched as a pair of small boys eventually joined them. The kids were about his own children's age, and were accompanied by a woman who looked to be a bit older than Eli. Eli turned and looked up at him, waving to make sure he was paying attention. He smiled broadly, and waved back. Eli waved him down to the water. Korwin shook his head and leaned back on his elbows. He saw Eli flip her auburn ponytail over her shoulder and say something to the other woman. They laughed, and the other woman pointed down the beach.

Deciding that there was little point in watching their conversation, he laid down and closed his eyes. At least he could get some sleep.

* * *

Korwin awoke to someone shaking his shoulders somewhat weakly. Opening his eyes, he saw his son's face blocking out the sun, grinning down at him. "Dad, we're going to dinner with my new friends, Pater and Urosh!" He stood up and said manically, "C'mon Dad, let's go! We have to go shower and get ready!" With that, his son dashed off towards the small groups of cozy little beach houses that ran along the edge of the beach, where it met a lush tropical jungle.

Korwin blinked sleepily and sat up. His eyes widened in alarm, and he quickly rolled to his right, barely avoiding a collision with his seemingly distracted daughter. Malea chased Avery up to their beach house, shouting something about sandcrabs. Korwin shook his head, and began trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes. When he was finished, he looked up to the sky, and saw that the sun had moved significantly. He must have been asleep for close to four hours. He rubbed his right hand down the smooth, dark skin of his left forearm. No pain.

He grinned at that. He hadn't had any kind of sunburn since Tatooine. Being black, he wasn't particularly susceptible in the first place. But wandering around Tatooine for the first month with no shirt on had produced some pretty fierce sunburns, even on him. After that though, his skin had darkened just a bit more, and then stayed that way. _Maybe I just broiled myself so damn good on Tatooine, that my skin can't cook anymore without bursting into flames._ He thought to himself.

"Hey sweety, you coming in?" He heard from behind him. He turned around, and saw Eli gathering up the beach towels and the picnic supplies.

He said, "Oh, yeah. Let me help you baby." When they'd gathered everything up, they headed up to the beach house. This place was unique for Eli and the kids, as it had no automatic doors, only basic electricity for lights and communication, and no access to the Holonet. That meant no Holodrama's and no Holoseries for Eli and the kids. Furthermore, there were no food synthesizer's. Everything was hand-cooked at the resort.

After showering, Korwin picked out a pair of baggy, comfortable, white cotton pants and a light blue, long-sleeved shirt of a fine, almost silken material. Slipping on a pair of leather sandals, Korwin stood up and walked into the 'fresher. His wife was standing behind their daughter in front of the mirror, helping her pile her long, dark auburn curls up on her head like her mother's. When it was completed, the result was an elegant tumble of curls that framed Malea's face and fell about her caramel-colored shoulders. She beamed up at Eli, and then turned to Korwin and said, "How do I look Daddy?"

He smiled affectionately, knelt down in front of her and pulled her to him. Giving her a tight hug, he then held her at arms length, and said, "You look stunning, baby girl." She was like a darker-skinned miniature version of her mother. She wore a loose white dress that was made of the same material as Korwin's shirt, and a pair of white sandals to match. A pair of diamond teardrops adorned her earlobes, and she wore a small pearl on a platinum chain about her neck. Eli's dress was much the same as her daughter's, but was a shade of pink like a Nubian sunset in autumn. She wore the same earrings and necklace, and the same white sandals.

Korwin stood up and gave his wife a kiss, and said, "You don't look too shabby either. You've improved since you started copying her though." He said teasingly, gesturing to their daughter at the last.

His comment earned him a swat on the top of the head, and then a return kiss. Eli said, "Well thank you...you look good too." She smiled at him, and then looked down at their daughter. "Malea, why don't you go make sure your brother is getting dressed?"

"'Kay." Malea replied, and she walked regally out of the 'fresher, her chin high in the air.

Korwin chuckled when she walked out, and pulled his wife into his arms, whispering, "You know, she get's that snobby rich girl thing from you."

Eli's mouth opened in feminine indignation, and she snapped back, "I am _not_ a snob! Jese and Lisandra are snobs. I'm not a snob." She pulled out of his arms, and said, "We should get going, or we'll be late."

Korwin raised an eyebrow curiously, and said, "Late for what?"

"Late for dinner with the Lannin's." She said, as she checked her appearance in the mirror one last time. Satisfied, she turned and pushed past him, out of the 'fresher.

He mouthed the unfamiliar name, a look of confusion on his face. He stood in the 'fresher for a moment, and then called out, "Baby, who do we know named Lannin?" His confusion was as evident in his voice as it was on his face. He walked into the house's family room, and saw his wife and children standing by the front door. His son was wearing a pair of tan shorts, and a white short-sleeved shirt. He was barefoot. Korwin said, "Ave, you need to put on some shoe's or sandal's or something."

"Mommy said it was okay." his son replied, leaning into his mother. Korwin looked up to his wife, and she just shrugged her shoulders in reply. He looked to his daughter for help, and she looked up to her mother. Who gave her...a look. A look which communicated something. Korwin wasn't sure what at first. It wasn't long in coming.

"Well Daddy, it _is_ an outdoor restaurant, and they don't really have a floor. It's just sand. Lot's of people eat barefoot there. It's not like we have to worry about tracking sand on the floors." She giggled at private knowledge that she had bested her father.

Korwin shrugged, sighed, and said, "Yeah, that's cool. That's fine. Let's just go eat." As they walked out of the front door and started walked down the beach towards the outdoor kitchens, Korwin looked at his wife, and said, "So Eli, who do we know named Lannin?"

She glanced back at him, and said, "Oh, you don't know anybody named Lannin sweety. You didn't want to swim, remember?" She smiled politely, and then said, "That's okay though, Nila's husband didn't swim either. So he doesn't know anyone named Nalan. At least you're not the only stranger at the table."

Korwin rolled his eyes and silently wished he'd kept his mouth shut. They made it to the restaurant, and saw the great glowing fires and pits that the cooked on, as well as steaming boxes, smoke boxes, and various other cooking devices ancient and modern. The food here really was quite amazing. He noticed a slightly heavy-set, but still pretty, older woman waving from a table nearby, and recognized her as the woman with the two boys. He looked at his wife, and his suspicions were confirmed when he saw her waving back.

As Korwin and his family approached, led by Eli, he saw that the woman had dark brown hair streaked with gray. Her face bore frown lines in abundance, but for all of those, she had just as many smile lines. Her two young son's were sitting to her left, both of them already giggling and talking excitedly with Malea and Avery, who had taken seats next to them.

The woman's husband was a big man. He had some weight on him, a little gut, but mostly, he just looked strong. He was tall too, Korwin could see that. His hair was ash blond, and his features were angular and sharp. He had a serious air about him, but seemed almost a bit nervous. Korwin could feel an air of apprehension around him when he stood to shake Korwin's hand. "Orden Lannin." The man said, his voice deep and brusque. Korwin instantly recognized him as a military man by the way he held himself, and the way he introduced himself. He'd almost wanted to salute the guy.

"Korwin Nalan." Korwin replied, shaking the man's hand firmly, his posture straight and firm. They released each other's hands and sat down.

Eli spoke up, and said, "Korwin, this is Nila Lannin, Orden's wife, and these are their son's, Pater and Urosh."

Korwin nodded his head to them and said, "Good to meet you."

Nila and Eli began talking to each other almost immediately, enjoying a long chat throughout the appetizer's the main course, and desert. The children were talking about...building a walk-in sandcastle. Now that was interesting. Tuning into that, Korwin deflected all attempts by his wife to pull him into mature conversation with monosyllabic responses, and lack of eye contact.

Korwin couldn't help but notice that Orden seemed to do the same with Nila. They ate silently for the most part, both of them wishing they could be somewhere, anywhere else. _Well, maybe not anywhere._ Korwin thought.

Eli glared hard at her husband, and thought of dressing him down right there. Then, deciding that it wasn't worth the trouble it would cause, she did something else. Smiling that polite, but distant, smile that let him know he was in trouble, she said, "Nila, why don't we take the children for a walk and leave the menfolk to their business?"

Nila looked at her husband, and then back up at Eli. "Sounds fine to me." She put a few credits on the table in front of her husband, and said, "Here, dear...order yourself some Corellian Whiskey or something." She stood up with Eli, and gathered her two children to her.

Eli looked at Malea and Avery, and said, "Walk?" They both nodded, and jumped up with their new friends, ready for an adventure. "Bye Daddy!" Malea said, giving her father a quick kiss on the cheek. Avery didn't say anything to him, just jabbered with Urosh about some Jedi game they were going to play.

As they walked off, he turned his attention to the wooden table in front of him. His dirty dishes had been cleared, and he sat by himself now. Well, not technically by himself, but...he didn't know this guy. They sat in uncomfortable silence for several minutes, one of them occasionally shifting in his chair, or coughing into his hand, or clearing his throat. Finally, Korwin couldn't take it any longer. Looking at Orden for the first time since the women had left, he said, "So, uh...you like Corellian Whiskey, huh?"

Orden nodded his head, and said somewhat haltingly, "Well, yeah...I grew up on, uh, Coruscant. But my dad is Corellian."

Korwin said, "Oh. Coruscant. I've been there once."

Orden looked at him, a smile tugging at his lips now, and he said, "Oh? What did you think of it?"

Images of TIE fighters, X-wings and A-wings, and every other kid of fighter and bomber swarming between the towering spires of Coruscant's Imperial City flashed through his mind. Other images, scenes of death, an endless fall into the abyss, and a final, devastating loss, flashed past as well. He smiled at Orden though, and said, "They have beautiful sunsets."

Orden grinned at Korwin and said, "Where are you from?"

Korwin said, "I was born on Juno IV. It's a little planet just off the outer rim. But I've been living on Naboo for about nine years now."

Orden nodded, and said, "Wife Nubian then?"

Korwin nodded, and said, "Yup. Born and raised. Her grandfather is from Juno IV though, interestingly enough. Kind of a weird coincidence."

Orden chuckled, and said, "You drink whiskey?"

Korwin nodded, and said, "Since I was suckin' my mama's titty."

Orden eyed him askance at that statement, and said, "Oookay." He flagged down a waitress and said, "Two Corellian whiskies please, straight up, doubles." He laid the appropriate amount of credits in her hand, plus a fairly generous tip, and then thanked her when she brought them back. Orden handed one to Korwin, and said, "So what do you do Korwin?"

Korwin said, "Well, I just finished at the University of Theed actually. I was in construction for about three years, and then went to school for architectural engineering. I've got a job in a firm in Theed. It's small, but it pays pretty well. Let's me keep _her_," he nodded in the direction his wife had gone, "satisfied with a comfortable lifestyle. And it's kind of fun, actually." He took a swallow of his whiskey, and smiled as it spread warmth throughout his core. He said, "What about you? What do you do?"

Orden said, "I'm a fisherman. We live here, on Darcell actually. I visit Coruscant pretty regularly, but haven't lived there since before Imperial City fell." He took a swig of his drink, set it down, and said, "I just don't like the city anymore. Too much, you know?"

Korwin nodded his head. "Theed's a chill place. But sometimes that's even too much. Eli and me are looking at eventually getting a house up in the Lake Country. It's great up there. Mountains, lakes, and hardly any people. The houses are incredible too."

Orden smiled, and said, "Sounds nice." He looked around, and sighed. "You know, maybe the ladies didn't have such a bad idea." He raised an eyebrow.

Korwin shrugged, and picked up his drink. "Sure, why not. It's nice and warm out tonight anyway." Taking another swig of his whisky, he followed Orden into the night. They walked along the beach, drinking their whiskey, and talking about everything from pod-racing to cooking. They actually had quite a bit in common. Korwin could see himself being friends with this guy.

After a time, Orden said, "So what did you do between the time that you left Juno IV and got to Naboo?"

Korwin shrugged, and said, "I was actually in the Army."

Orden stopped up, and said, "Really? You know, I was too. During the war."

Korwin took a sip of his drink, and said, "No shit? You see action?"

"Yeah...some. My first deployment was to Tatooine."

Korwin felt as if he'd been suckerpunched in the gut, and he tried to sound casual as he said, "I was on Tatooine also." He swirled his whiskey slowly in the glass, watching the moonlight turn the dark amber liquid into a swirling black and silver. "I was there for fourteen months."

"Damn. I was there for about eight. I landed on planet just a couple weeks before that big push down the draw. Gods that place was hell." He took a long drink of his whiskey, draining the glass, and sighed. "Fourteen months, huh? That's a long damn time."

Korwin nodded and finished his whiskey as well, quietly reveling in the soft buzz it had produced. "It was the sandpeople that made it really bad. That was the real shitter. I mean, they really did a number on us."

"I _know_. Those damn tusken's were just unbelievable. It didn't matter how many of them you vaped, they just kept coming back for more. And the worst was that you never knew when they were going to hit you next, or where."

Korwin started chuckling, and nodding his head, and said, "And the fucking heat man. Holy gods, the heat was just...I've never felt heat like that since."

Orden was chuckling as well, and said, "Well shit, the black body suit and all that armor didn't help either."

Korwin's chuckling trailed off, and he said, "You were a stormtrooper?"

Orden stopped walking, and said, "You weren't?"

"No. I was Alliance. I was the team leader of a recon squad."

Orden was silent for a moment, then slowly smiled, and said, "You know, you guys used to scare the shit out of us."

Korwin was taken aback by the response, and found himself grinning back. "You scared us plenty too. I can remember so many times sitting in that canyon, watching you guys walk right past me. I almost got my head stepped on once. That was pretty fucking scary."

Orden shook his head, and said, "And see, that's what was so scary to us. After the first few ambushes in there and in the desert, we started getting jumpy. We never knew whether that mound of dirt with a little bit of scrub brush and rock on it was actually that, or a ghostman."

Korwin snorted, "Ghostmen? Is that what you guys called us?"

Orden nodded. "You were like ghosts to us. The idea that you could get so close to us, without us having any idea that you were there. That was the thing that scared all of us most. You guys and the sandpeople. You were the same to us. Desert animals that were extremely talented hunters."

Korwin felt oddly honored at that, and said, "Well...thanks, I guess. So you fought at the battle of Xelric Draw, did you?"

"Yeah. I was in one of the first phalanxes to meet rebel infantry in the desert. That was a bloody one. I remember when we got out there, we thought sure we'd have you outgunned. We had reinforcements coming from the Jundland Wastes in the south, and we thought we had you." He sighed. "It's probably a good thing we didn't. We wasted too many men on that one though. Too many."

Korwin nodded, and said, "I don't know if you realize how bad you hurt us there. One or two more big pushes like that, we could have been run off the planet."

"Well, that's not what happened. It was just damn stupid, you know. I had a brother in that battle, coming from the wastes with his unit. Some recon unit hit their flanks as they were getting close, and he got shot in the back. They couldn't get him to an aid station in time, and he died. The recon guys just disappeared right after that, left like six other guys dead too." Orden looked out over the water, and said, "I used to be angry at you guys. I used to hate the Alliance, the New Republic. I used to hate the recon guy's especially, for the danger you represented. For every thirty stormtroopers killed by recon units, we killed one recon guy, did you know that? I looked it up."

Korwin shook his head. "Didn't know that. I remember that we had a pretty good attrition rate, but that's it really. I didn't worry about how many Imps my squad killed before one of my guys bought it." He looked up at the sky, and said, "I just wanted to complete my mission, and bring all of my troops home safe...you know?"

Orden nodded his head, and said, "Yeah, I do." He dug his foot into the sand for a moment, and then said, "You didn't go swimming today."

Korwin shook his head. "No, why?"

"I didn't either. I'm getting over a minor ear infection, so I can't get any water in it right now." Orden said.

Korwin winced in sympathy, and said, "Those hurt man. I'm sorry."

Orden shrugged, and said, "That's okay." Looking at Korwin, he said, "The scars are nothing to be ashamed of, you know."

"What? Why would you say that?" Korwin asked.

"My wife has a big mouth. So does yours apparently." Orden said, a little half-smile on his face. "Just remember that. They're nothing to be ashamed of. This planet is a Republic planet. This resort wouldn't be here if not for Republic trade to this planet's capitol. If you want to look at it another way, those scars helped pay for this place. Because there would be no New Republic without it's first veteran's."

Standing at the water's edge, feeling relaxed and buzzed from the whiskey, Korwin felt a sudden kinship with the man standing next to him. He was right, after all. Korwin had helped buy the Republic it's freedom with his blood. Without taking his gaze away from the stars, Korwin raised his empty glass, and toasted their shared experience. "To Tatooine then."

"To Tatooine." Orden echoed, his drained glass joining Korwin's in the air. They clinked them together, and then quietly started back to the restaurant. When they arrived, they set their glasses down on the table, and said goodnight. "It was good meeting you Korwin." Orden said, extending his hand.

Korwin took the proffered hand and shook it, saying, "Likewise, man, likewise. I'll see you later." As Korwin walked back to his house, he smiled to himself. It had been a good night after all. And he found that his enmity for the Imps was gone. They had just been soldiers like himself, following orders. When he reached the beach house, he went in to find that Eli and the kids were already asleep. He undressed and slipped into bed next to his wife, pulling her warm body close. She murmured something in her sleep, and snuggled into his arms.

Korwin closed his eyes, and allowed sleep to overcome him, his mind more at ease than it had been in a long time.

* * *

Korwin sat on the beach towel, watching his wife and kids playing in the water. The sun was hot today, and he could feel his shirt soaking through with sweat. His son looked up at him at that moment, and they made eye contact. Coming to a decision, Korwin smiled at his son and stood up. Removing his shirt, he ran down to the water and plunged into a wave headfirst. Coming to his feet, he waded over to his son, only to be greeted with a splash in the face. He splashed back, and both his son and daughter dashed away laughing.

He looked at Eli, smiling breathlessly, and swept her into his arms. Her surprised shriek was stifled when he planted his lips on hers, letting them linger for several seconds. When they parted, she smiled brightly, and said, "What about your scars?"

Korwin looked at her, confusion apparent in his expression. "Scars? You mean receipts."

"What?" She said, now thoroughly confused herself.

"I own stock in the Republic, and these are my receipts. Proof of purchase if you will." He grinned at her, and she laughed loudly at him. He kissed her again, and said, "We'll have to come back here sometime."

Eli kissed him back, and said, "As long as I get to see your rippling muscles." She laughed then, and pulled away from him, heading up onto the beach to get something to eat. A feeling of contentment spread through Korwin, and he knew then that everything was worth it. That everything in his life was turning out exactly as it was meant to, and he had nothing to want for. So focused was he on his happiness, and on his lovely wife, that he was caught completely unawares when Avery and Malea tackled him from behind, taking his legs out underwater.

He slipped under the surface with a startled shout, and was down for several seconds. He came back up with a laughing child under each arm, and began slowly wading in to shore. Whilst both of them laughed uproariously as he carried them like books up to the towels, he said, "You know, the problem is that ya'll are too skinny. If you ate all that food your mama always made for you, you'd be big and strong like me. I was this big when I was just_ten_."

Malea laughed harder and that, and shrieked, "But Daddy, I'm only eight!"

Korwin plopped them both down on the beach towels next to their mother and said, "Oh, well there's nothing I can do for you then. You'll just have to wait two years." Handing each of his children a sandwich, Korwin unwrapped one for himself.

As he watched his wife and children eat, he decided that he couldn't feel bitter about the war, or about his losses. Because if he hadn't gone to war, he never would have gone to Naboo. He never would have met Eli and had his daughter and son, and Korwin couldn't picture his life without any of them. On that beach with his family, the last of Korwin's regrets from the war melted away. He'd always feel the pain, the grief, and sometimes the guilt. But never again would he regret the choice he'd made that day at his mother's apartment in Tides.

He thought briefly about one of his old K Company comrades from Gnazt, Pazt Jezrak. He knew exactly what the Kel Dor would have said if he were there, and could almost hear his soft monotone voice filteringthrough his breath mask's comm: "_It was the will of the force_."


	17. Soldier 14

Thanks for reading this far and maintaining interest. I'm impressed. Judging from the lack of reviews, there's not _a lot_ of interest, but I'll keep writing anyway.

Enjoy

* * *

Korwin sat down in his plush chair, and rubbed his eyes sleepily. Laina waited for him to acknowledge her, then said, "Good morning Mr. Nalan. Ready to begin?"

He nodded his head, and said, "Yes ma'am. Ready as I ever am." He chuckled at his little rhyme, and then said, "Go ahead."

"Let's continue with the assault on Mos Espa."

He nodded, his expression somber now. "I stepped off the box in the market square, and...it was almost surreal. Everything had happened so suddenly, you know? It was strange, the people refusing to leave made it strange; it was almost like...I don't know what it was. It was a strange feeling." He laughed a little at his words, realizing how funny it sounded, and then began his narration.

* * *

Korwin and his squad had their orders from Borlin. Hit and run, picking off the stragglers and the units guarding the enemy flanks. They sat in the market square, waiting for the next box to arrive so that they could hitch a ride to the fight. The whole thing struck Korwin as odd. His eyes felt heavy, and he knew that on some level, he should have been exhausted. He wasn't though. It was mid afternoon now, and the twin suns were high in the sky, but he could barely feel the heat. The scents of exotic spices and roasting meats and vegetables from food that had been cooking just that morning still lingered in the air and filled his nostrils, making his mouth water. From a building nearby, he heard the sound of a primitive alarm clock, ringing loudly, emanating from an open window.

Suddenly, he was overcome by a wave of unexpected nostalgia. Closing his eyes, he suddenly found himself in the Tides Market. The smells, the sounds from the buildings, the aural jumble of many indistinguishable voices; everything was right. The heat faded from his back, and he opened his eyes to a cloudy sky weeping gently upon a cold metal platform.

He saw the spurwood stalls hung with merchandise to pull in potential customers. He saw the square filled with shoppers, and fat old Faroul sitting on his stool, surrounded by his piles and piles of the latest women's fashions from around the galaxy. His brother was there, folding some clothes in the background. He smiled at the sight and took a deep breath of the cool, briny air, the smell of the ocean channel invigorating him. Raindrops splashed on his face, and ran down his cheeks, falling off his chin in tiny crystal droplets. He closed his eyes again, feeling the water on his face.

And then he was back on Tatooine. The suns still burning the back of his uniform, the dust still swirling about, as men and aliens ran to and fro carrying out whatever duty they'd been assigned to. Korwin realized that he could still feel the moisture on his cheeks, and quickly reached up to wipe away the tears. _What the fuck?_ He thought to himself. That was unusual for him. Crying wasn't something he did often. He glanced around at his squadmates, but none of them seemed to have noticed. They all seemed lost in their own thoughts. Avery alone seemed unperturbed. He looked over at Korwin and grinned. "What up? You frettin' about this shit?"

Korwin smiled at his old friend and shook his head. "No...nah, not at all. I'm just...I miss home, you know?"

Avery looked down at the blaster rifle he held in his hands, and then back up at Korwin. He smirked, and said, "Man...the way I figure it, a couple of no good fuckin' gangsters like us woulda probably died young anyway. Most of us don't make it old, man. Shit Magic, look at Elan. Or fuckin', Jolcoad. Ryl-Ryl, Yisten, Big Green. I could go on if you want." He sniffed, and then spat hard on the ground. "How many of those fools lived to be twenty? We wasn't even out of fuckin' middle school when Ryl-Ryl got blasted."

Korwin shook his head, his smile long gone. His expression was almost bitter now, and he said, "You know? The fucked up thing is, you're right. You're fucking right. I shouldn't miss the place. I lost more good friends to the Tides than I have so far to this fucking war." He looked across the market square at a group of young troops who were sitting down on the ground, playing a dice game. Then, glancing over at Avery, he said, "You know, I found out where my father went, before I left."

Avery looked surprised at that, and said, "No shit, huh? Where at?"

Korwin reached up with his left hand and rubbed the back of his head, looking to the sky for the box. "He's in the mountain. Double murder, a couple of Black Saber's boys in the wrong part of town."

Avery shook his head at that, and said, "You know man, that's why I don't miss it like you do. I always was into all that shit, you know? I mean, Northside Robbin' Crew forever, right? For life. But it's like...we're fightin' a war back home too, you know? And it's one that our daddy's started before we was even born." He shrugged his shoulders, his dark arms rising and falling heavily. "Least here we're doing something worthwhile. The Empire's fucked up. They're evil, man.

"But I been thinkin' real, real hard about it. Them Saber's boy's down in Flats are the same as us. They're just a bunch of poor kids who push glitterstim and rhondis to make ends meet, help the exchange run weapons through the 'hood, and shoot other poor kids from the other side of town. Say that ain't true."

Korwin shrugged, and said, "Yeah, I guess so. I don't know. I don't necessarily miss the shit, you know? I mean, I don't miss going to funerals for my friends..." The irony of his statement struck him even as he said it, and it managed to shake his other squadmates from their own personal reveries.

Kierse said, "Shit Magic, that's only cause you don't get to go home with the bodies." He grinned broadly, and said benevolently, "I promise you though; if I get vaped I'll put a legal addendum on my will that states that you have to accompany the body to Corellia for the funeral. Otherwise, I'll just sit here and rot to force their hands."

Kreth wrinkled her nose at him, and said, "You're fucking sick Kierse. Shut up." She looked up at the sky, and then said, "Our ride is here anyway. Off your asses." She stood up and gave Kierse a sharp kick in the thigh, prompting him to hop quickly to his feet.

"What the fuck, woman, what gives? You're not the boss!" He snapped at her.

She said, "I speak for the boss, dick...and if you call me _woman_ again, sir, I will bludgeon your little scrotum until those sweetpeas you call testicles look like over-ripe kiwami melons. Sir." She saluted him smartly, and then said, "Now, get to the box."

Kierse looked faintly ill at her threat, and complied with her, grumbling all the while. The rest of the squad followed, and as Avery passed by Kreth, he grinned lasciviously at her and ran a hand over his bald head. "Lady, you gots balls. If it wasn't for that, I'd sleep with you."

Kreth slugged him hard in the stomach, feeling immensely satisfied as the breath whooshed out of his lungs, and then patted him on the back as he huffed his way into the box, slightly bent over. "Suck it up there, soldier. You're acting like a girl." She grinned gleefully at the mournful glare he cast at her as he hopped into the box, his breathing coming back under control.

Korwin watched all of this with amusement, and congratulated himself once again on his choice for assistant team leader. Kreth was as smart as he was (probably a whole lot smarter, really), a fierce fighter, and she took shit from no one. He motioned for her to get on first, and then hopped up on the edge. When he was settled, the pilot fired the vertical thrusters and jammed the throttle lever forward. As the box flew over the monotonous urban sprawl that was Mos Espa, Korwin felt a heavy weight settle in his gut.

When the box broke out over open desert, and he saw the storm of energy bolts and explosions that stretched in a long, broken line across the open desert of the eastern Xelric Draw, he realized what the feeling was. Fear. He felt it often enough, but rarely so acutely. Despite having been 'raised', so to speak, in a regular infantry unit, he had been recon for months now. He had no body armor on, and had little real experience in large open field battles.

Most of his combat experience came from fierce running battles at the end of a patrol (or the beginning if they were particularly unlucky) that generally ended in several enemy KIA, and a seat-of-the-pants extraction, all guns blazing. That sort of combat was exhilerating. Sudden and fast-paced, it was the biggest thrill ride he could think of. This was different. Here, there was plenty of room to maneuver, but being stealthy would be a chore. The battle could last for hours and they could be there, fighting, for that entire time. They were being taken out of their element, stripped of their primary strengths as recon troops, and forced to assume infantry roles.

It left a bitter taste in Korwin's mouth, and he couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't going to turn out well. Turning to Kreth, he saw that she had a look of concern on her face as well. Her eyes met his, and he raised an eyebrow. She shrugged, and shouted, "It just doesn't feel right! We're going in too light for this kind of thing! I wish we could have gotten some body armor or something!"

Avery shouted, "Shit ya'll, how you think I feel? I _had_ armor this morning!" The engine wash made it difficult for Korwin to pick up what his friend was saying, as he was sitting in the opposite doorway, but he still managed to piece it together.

"Quit your bitching private! You should be thankful I chose you! This is an elite squad, you know?" Korwin hollered back to him, a grin on his face.

Avery shouted back at him, "C'mon Magic, you know me...the grass is _always_ greener!" He raised his index finger and thumb to his lips and inhaled sharply, before laughing.

Korwin laughed too, and said, "Man, what I wouldn't give for some sweet fucking rhondis to smoke after this shit is done."

Avery said, "Careful what you wish for man."

Korwin shook his head, and then heard a squawk over the boxes PA system. He looked to the pilot, who hollered, "HOLD ON!" Korwin nodded, and then felt the box bank sharply to the right, going nearly horizontal. He clung to the edge of the doorway with one hand, and the edge of the floor with the other, but remained calm, having been through this many times. Blaster bolts from both small arms and heavier cannons whizzed past them, and Korwin saw more walker's coming out of the canyon in the distance. The sound of the starboard door gunner pumping a crimson river of molten energy into the ranks of the stormtroopers below let him know they were giving more hell than they were taking.

The box swerved hard back the other way and the shot upwards, straight at the sky. Korwin watched as a large green bolt shot just past his door, and marveled at the heat it gave off. Suddenly, the box turned back towards the ground, and began plummeting downwards. Korwin couldn't help releasing the panicked yell that finally welled up in his chest. As the ground rushed nearer and nearer, he heard his squadmates begin yelling as well and watched as the stormtrooper's in the vicinity stopped shooting at the plummeting box and began running away. Only the pilot and co-pilot remained calm, and at the last moment, the box pulled up violently.

Korwin had closed his eyes by that point, and opened them to find them skimming over the ground at perhaps fifteen feet. The sounds of battle were falling behind them, and he took a look to see. They were indeed racing away from the battle, heading west, and a little south. About a quarter mile away from the edges of the battle, the box slowed to a halt and came to a hover a few feet off the ground.

"Move out!" Korwin shouted, and everyone jumped off the box. Kierse was the last to debark, and as his feet left the deck, the box shot skyward and whipped around for Mos Espa. Korwin looked around at his squad, and then said, "Okay, here's what I want. Silence on the hunt, like always. No more than one grenade and one pak per hit. Share ammo if someone runs low. When we're all down to two or less paks, we back off to this point and call for extraction to re-up on ammo, got it?" When everyone nodded their heads, he said, "Good."

They spent a moment touching up their paint jobs, and then began moving silently towards the battle. Korwin felt the knot of apprehension in his stomach growing larger, tighter. A faintly nauseous feeling began to creep over him, but he fought it off, forcing himself to remain focused on doing his job. It was difficult though.

As they ghosted swiftly across their adopted environment, Korwin felt his mind wandering again, this time to Naboo. Eli was there right now. He wondered what she was doing. Was she sitting down to a meal with her parents in their home near the palace? Was she with her friends, shopping? Hell, he didn't even know what time it was there.

As he moved over the shifting golden sands, he wished desperately to be back on Naboo with her. Anywhere but here. He was forced from his thoughts by Kreth halting and going prone on the side of the dune they were running down. Korwin did likewise, and looked around for what she'd seen. It took him only a moment.

Poking over the top of a dune some fifty or so feet away were the helmets of several stormtroopers. They were moving perpendicularly to Korwin's patrol, on a southerly heading. They waited until the group had passed, and then crept down the rest of the dune and up the side of the other. He counted twenty-five Imps moving away from them, backs turned. They were roughly fifty feet past them now.

Korwin motioned for Haslin to take a prone position on top of the dune, and then went down the side where the stormtroopers couldn't see him. He took point and motioned for Kreth, Kierse and Avery to follow him. He'd been a little worried about Avery at first, but he'd proved immediately adept at sneaking, having been a chronic youth offender back home. He had plenty of experience evading the security officer's in Celka City, and was proving quite adaptable to the new environment.

The crept along the backside of the dune, shadowing the stormtroopers for what must have been almost six hundred yards before he clicked his comm once. He barely heard the report of Haslin's sporting blaster, but he heard the surprised shouts of the stormtroopers loud and clear. He waited several seconds, and then waved his squad to the top of the dune. He arrived at the top with a primed plasma grenade in his hand, which he hurled into the confused mass of stormtroopers who were lying low, trying to find the direction of the snipers fire. His grenade exploded along with three others, creating an enormous red flash, the heat of which Korwin could feel even on the top of the dune.

Before the red haze had cleared, Korwin and his squadmates began pouring fire onto the Imps position. He could hear the cries of the wounded and dying, and saw a scattering of downed enemy troops. He gave the signal to cease firing and hurried down the backside of the dune, his three troops wasting no time in following his example. He could already hear the shouts of the stormtroopers who'd survived the sudden attack unscathed, and knew that they were hurriedly mustering their forces to come after them. Stowing the now ridiculous notion of remaining hidden, he pulled his comm from his harness and yelled into it, "Keep those fucker's pinned, Has! We'll be there in a minute!"

His only reply was a marked increase in the firing rate from the sporting blaster rifle that he was rapidly approaching. Dashing along the bottom edge of the dune, Korwin heard the first sound of firing behind him, and risked a single glance over his shoulder. Thankfully, his other three troops were still running doggedly along behind him, evan as the Imps they'd ambushed crested the dune some ways behind them and began shooting at them. Nothing hit, and they quickly outdistanced the armor-encumbered Imps. When Korwin came upon Haslin's prone form, he merely shouted to him and continued on, grinning as he heard the sudden absence of the sniper's weapon on the battlefield.

Haslin was a damn near perfect sniper. He was a great soldier who did his duty, but his final loyalty lay to his squad. Korwin knew that, and knew that they were lucky to have earned that loyalty. Korwin was infinitely grateful to the force, and whatever else was out there, that he'd decided to go with someone other than Corven. Sure, the guy was good...but Haslin was better. Way better. Haslin was perfectly self-sufficient, capable of finding and maintaining his own hides with no direction from others, as well as surviving in the wilderness and killing just about anything with a single shot. Korwin appreciated independence in his squad. It was a trait that the various recon squads had all been developing, much to the chagrin of the brass.

He was jolted from his musings by the sound of an enormous explosion from the main battle, accompanied by a flash of light bright enough to be seen in the afternoon light. Korwin looked hard for a moment, but couldn't see what it was that had gone up. He allowed a moment of worry, and hope that it wasn't something important to the Alliance. Then he pushed the thoughts from his mind and focused on his mission. Once they'd managed to disappear from sight completely, with the help of a couple large sand dunes and plenty of footspeed, Korwin called a halt.

"Okay," he started, his breath coming in gasps, "that was a good start. But we've got to find more. And keep an eye out for sandpeople. I wouldn't be able to pass up a target like this if I was them." He said, waving an all-encompassing hand at the battle being waged just a short distance to the east. "All those targets in one place...damn." He shook his head, and then said, "Move out." He took point again, which wasn't questioned by his squad. Although it was very rare for him to do so, as the now standard operating procedure was for the team leader to go second while the assistant team leader took point, it was something he did occasionally.

Right now, Korwin felt the need to be in front. He didn't know why, just that he did. He had learned to trust his instincts over the course of his time in the Army, and he wasn't about to stop now. They headed north first for several minutes, and then slowly turned eastward, back towards the conflict. He watched several sandspeeder's (the same snowspeeder's used on Hoth, but modified for use in extreme heat instead of extreme cold) take down several AT-ST's with well placed blasts from their cannon's. Just moments later, one of the speeder's was blasted out of the sky by a much larger AT-AT. Korwin winced as the vehicle exploded in mid-flight, unleashing a storm of flaming debris upon the already beleaguered combatants below.

He heard Kierse utter a soft, "Fucking hell." They continued on, Korwin at the head of the tiny column, until they came to a spot where the dunes began to flatten. There was some combat already going on up ahead, on the flats, and as they lay prone and well hidden on top of the last dune, Korwin decided that they were going to join in for a little. He looked over to his comrades, and said, "We're going over there. Haslin, sling your sport and pick up an E-33 off a dead Imp or Ally."

Kierse said, "Wait a fucking minute here...we're just going to run up and...attack?"

Korwin shrugged, and said, "I don't see the difference between that and what we just did."

Kreth stared at him incredulously. "Korwin, there's a lot more firepower over there. That's a pretty damn big lightfight. There must be a couple companies on each side in that corner of the battle..."

Korwin cut her off, "But there's not any walkers, and I don't want to be too far out in the desert right now."

Kreth reacted as if splashed with ice cold water. "B-b-bb-but...why?" She didn't seem to know how to take that. "That's what we do...it's our thing."

"I don't know, okay!" He snapped, glaring between the four other troops, their questioning gazes rubbing on already frayed nerves. "But I've gotten ya'll this fucking far...the least you can do is trust me on this." Without waiting for an answer, he started off for the fight, keeping low to the ground and focusing on the closest stormtroopers he saw. He noticed that they wore the single orange shoulder pad of the 'elite' sandtroopers.

As far as he was concerned, there was nothing elite about them. They had better stamina than others, so could carry heavier weapons, scored higher on their marksmanship exams than regular stormtroopers, and had some training in desert survival techniques. However, they lacked any sort of stealth capabilities and, judging from his close proximity to them on some of his more hair-raising patrols, they couldn't find their own ass's with a training manual, both hands and a full briefing.

As they approached the rear fire lines of the Imps, Korwin slung his rifle and pulled a plasma grenade off of his combat harness with each hand. He primed them both, and then lobbed them both into the Imp's ranks, watching with satisfaction as his troops did the same. Before they'd even landed, Korwin un-slung his rifle, whipped it to his shoulder and began firing. Time seemed to slow again, and he watched with detachment as two Imps went down under his bolts. Then the grenades began to fall. The small recon squad had managed to sneak up on the Imps rear without being detected, and each had loosed two grenades before un-slinging their blaster rifles.

Ten explosions ripped through the air, all of them falling so close together as to blend into one. Korwin felt his ears pop, and could hear a loud ringing in both, but continued pouring fire onto the suddenly dazed Imperial ranks. His mind was working calmly, almost as if it was a hologame. _There's one—raise blaster rifle–blam, blam...he's down...there's another—shift aim—blam, blam, blam, blam...down...shift aim—blam, blam, blam..._

Everything was automatic, everything was pre-conditioned. If it was shiny and white, it was dead. He felt a stinging pain on his arm, but assessed it as nothing more than a graze and continued firing through the smoky haze that was left after the many grenades had exploded. He found his pak empty after what barely seemed like seconds, and quickly popped it out. Flipping it over, he jammed in the full one that it was taped to and hit the priming button before dropping to his knee and firing again. It was almost too easy.

Caught between fire on two fronts, the Imps were being cut down. The grenades hadn't helped at all. And to think that if just one of them had turned around and been observant enough, Korwin and his four could be dead right now. But that's not how it happened. So completely focused were they on the enemy in front, no one turned around until it was too late.

By the time Korwin had exhausted his second pak, he decided it was high-time to get the hell out of there. Not bothering to call a cease fire, he reloaded while retreating, and then dashed full speed towards the more open area to the immediate south. His squad followed, all guns blazing away at the Imps. He fired on any Imps that came across his field of vision, and noticed that his squad was taking fire as well now. Cutting hard west, Korwin led them away from the battle again, and grunted as he felt another stinging pain in his left lower back.

_Just another graze._ He told himself, although he wasn't so sure. His left leg was starting to tingle a bit, and he could feel himself starting to run a little unevenly. As they reached the first dune, and crested it, Korwin nearly fell over the other side as his leg gave out. Kreth caught him by the elbow, and helped him down to the bottom of the dune. A moment later, Avery slid to a running stop next to them, and then Haslin and Kierse came hard on his heels. Kierse puffed out, "Not following us...we made a clean getaway again." He then gasped in lungfuls of searing hot air, trying to regain his equilibrium.

Korwin looked over and shook his head at Kierse, his teeth grit through the pain. "No man, I'm hit." He saw Avery look at him questioningly, and said, "My fucking back...my lower back."

Avery nodded, and said, "Kreth, help me roll him over."

Korwin allowed his friends to roll him onto his stomach, and then felt a gentle tugging at his jumpsuit as Avery pulled his medical scissors out of a pocket and began cutting it open. "How bad is it, Ave?" His immediate response was the sound of Avery going through his big cargo pockets and getting antiseptic powder and bandages. The silence from his new medic wasn't reassuring, and he could feel the blood pounding in his ears as he nearly shouted, "Ave? C'mon man, don't fuck with me here...I can't feel my fucking leg, Ave! How fucking bad is it?"

"Shut up Magic, and let me fuckin' work!" Avery shouted back. Korwin felt the burning sensation grow more intense as Avery tore open a foil tube of antiseptic powder and poured it onto the blaster wound in his lower back. "Don't you worry Magic, I'm gonna get you patched up and we're gonna get the fuck outta here."

Korwin heard Kreth calling for extraction, and then heard her curse. "What? What's wrong?"

Kreths' voice was soft when she spoke, but resigned. "They're not coming, Magic."

"WHAT THE FUCK! WHY NOT!" He raged, trying to roll back over. Avery pushed him back down and finished the bandage job, while Korwin snarled, "Get back on that fucking comm and tell them to get their asses out here! I can't move my fucking leg!"

Kreth shook her head, and said, "They're not coming boss...we should have stayed in by the battle. You were right."

His expression almost fearful, Korwin replied, "What do you mean I was right?" He felt Avery putting the finishing touches on the bandage, and then used his arms to roll himself onto his back. The sky to the west was filled with a brown-red haze that seemed to be growing closer. His voice soft, Korwin said, "What the fuck is that?"

Haslin muttered, "Shit." They all looked at him, and he said, "Sandstorm." Looking to his comrades, Haslin said, "We ain't gonna survive this one."

"Banthashit!" Korwin snapped. "It's coming from the west, and fast. Get on the eastern face of that dune, halfway up." He said, pointing to a dune that was fairly tall and steep. "We sit there and ride this thing out, then call for extraction again."

Kierse nodded his agreement, and said, "Let me help you buddy." Kierse and Avery helped lift Korwin up, and Kreth grabbed his weapon. They hot-footed it over to the opposite dune and hunkered down low on it's eastern side, waiting for the storm.

Korwin could hear the wind picking up around them, and he finally realized that this was what the fear was about. The clenching tightness in his abdomen was all-consuming right now, and his anxiety over the approaching storm was currently pushing aside all concern over his wound. If he died in a sandstorm, it wouldn't matter whether he used the leg again or not.

As the first hurricane force winds whipped over them, taking most of the top of the dune with it, Korwin thought again of Eli. _I'm never gonna fucking see her again. I'm gonna die here, buried under the sand until the wind fucking digs me up again in a thousand years._ He could hear the wind thundering around them, could feel the sand scraping along his cloth-covered back. His eyes were tightly closed and his face was covered by his arms, his hands pulled into the sleeves of his jumpsuit.

Eli was firmly entrenched in his head now, and he kept his minds-eye focused on her lovely, pale face, and her shining auburn hair, even as he felt the sand abrading his uniform away. He kept his focus fixed on her as he felt the first sting of the sand on his left shoulder, as it scoured away the last of his jumpsuit there. He screamed as the pain intensified and spread, slowly moving down the left side of his back. When it reached the blaster wound, white spots exploded in his vision, and his head began to swim. He dimly realized that he couldn't hear himself screaming over the thundering wind, and a cold, resigned feeling settled in. He was going to die here. As the pain pushed him over the edge, into unconsciousness, he cried out Eli's name, knowing he'd never see her again.

* * *

"It was four days before I came to. I was on a hospital ship, in orbit in Alliance controlled space above Tatooine." Korwin said, his voice betraying some of the physical discomfort the wound had caused.

"How bad was the damage?" Laina asked, her voice gentle.

He sighed, and said, "The sand took all of the skin off of my left shoulder, and most of the left side of my back. My upper left arm was pretty bad too. They ended up having to cover that whole area in synthflesh. It burned for weeks afterwards though, and I can still feel it sometimes, when I think about it." He frowned at that, his brows knitting tightly together. "It was another of those moments, those defining moments. At that moment, I knew without a doubt that I was going to die. I should have died. We all should have. But we didn't."

Laina made a few notes on her datapad, and then said, "How did the other's fare?"

"Kreth got off pretty light. She and Haslin were the furthest down. Haslin was fine, but I guess they had to dig him up. Kreth got some skin run off the back of one leg, but not bad. Avery got it as bad as I did, and so did Kierse. Kierse was the worst. His whole back, both of his legs. All synth-flesh now."

Laina whistled softly, and said, "I imagine then, that you felt a little lucky. I know I would have."

He shrugged. "I guess. But I felt bad for him too. Those wounds didn't even result from combat. That's not a way for a soldier to get a mercy cross, you know? But we got one anyway. I got another one for the shot I took to the back. I have a little robotic nerve center there. That's what it damaged, was a nerve cluster that controlled sensation and motor functions in my leg. So, a robotic nerve cluster." He chuckled. "The miracles of modern medicine."

Laina nodded, and when Korwin didn't continue, she saved her work, and said, "Well, Mr. Nalan, I'm hungry. Why don't we break for lunch?"

He smiled at her, and said, "Sounds like an idea." Standing up, he checked his wrist chrono, and said, "1:23."

Laina smiled and nodded, and said, "See you then."

* * *

So, that was Chapter 14...hopefully the next installment will be up soon. Hopefully, I'll have a few more reviews by then. Let me know how I'm doing folks. Four people don't speak for all of you!

Also, be sure to check out a new story authored by RowenaR, called Screw Up. It tells the story of Private Jenna Melara, whom some of you may remember from the taking of Mos Espa and the "Magic" nickname. It's a good story, and well worth the read, so check it out.


	18. Soldier 15

To anyone who may have been wondering why Korwin is only a Corporal at the time of the interview, despite his battlefield achievements and length of service, one reason is in the following chapter. Please read and review! I'd like to know what people think about this one.

* * *

Korwin sat down in his chair, his stomach feeling...moderately full. He hadn't had much of an appetite after his recounting of being caught in the sandstorm. It always brought back that sensation of his skin being peeled away layer by layer. He supressed a shudder, and forced a smile onto his face as Laina took her seat as well. "We ready to start then?" He asked her.

She turned on her datapad and nodded her head. "Of course." Smiling, she said, "I'd like to ask a little more about the overall effects that the sandstorm had on the battle."

Korwin licked his lips slowly, and sucked a little air through his teeth, before saying, "The box pilots did their best to get as many of the infantry off the field and into Mos Espa as they could...some didn't make it. We lost some to the storm. The Imp's armor would have offered only so much protection, and visibility was really nil...or so I heard. They retreated into the canyon at the north of the Xelric Draw.

"The battle continued the next day, and into the night a good ways. I was told by an infantry friend who was there that they made it to the western outskirts of Mos Espa before we finally pushed them back. The Navy finally made it down to help and took out the walker's for them. Of course, just after that, they got chased off by a flight of TIE's."

Laina's eyebrows rose, and she said, "That's a mighty close call."

"If they'd gotten into the city, or if those walkers had been allowed to get closer, it would have been Imperial again." Korwin's tone was matter-of-fact, the voice of a man with no fear of what might have been. "But it didn't happen that way. We won the fight, we kept the city free, and I only lost some skin and a nerve cluster in the process. I guess both sides also lost a bunch to heatstroke and dehydration. That's a terrible way for a soldier to go if you ask me. Imperial or Alliance."

Laina recorded the last of that information, and then said, "Let's move on to after your recovery. When did you get back to Tatooine?"

Korwin thought about it for a moment, and then answered, "I got back down there on February 5th. Eight days before my eighteenth birthday."

Laina smiled, and said, "Just in time to celebrate official adulthood with your friends, huh?"

He gave an awkward little grin, and his eyes darted to the ceiling. Clearing his throat, he said, "Uh, not quite...you see, there was a party before that."

"Another party?" Laina asked, her eyebrows raised, sensing perfect holodoc material.

He made eye contact again, and she guessed that had his skin not been so dark, she would have seen him flushing. "I was promoted to Sergeant while I was in the hospital, and received my stripes upon my return to Tatooine. So, Avery and Kierse decided we should all catch a box into Mos Espa and hit a few cantina's to celebrate...I did something very bad. I really sort of...forgot where I was, I guess."

* * *

"Look at that! Sergeant Magic! Ain't that some shit?" Avery said, his voice much louder than was necessary. He grinned, and said, "So Magic, you remember what you said 'bout smokin' some rhondy after that battle?"

Korwin nodded his head, and looked around as they walked towards the landing pad, making sure no one was listening. Not that anyone would know what "rhondy", or even rhondis, was. It was native to Juno IV, and was only found there, so far as he knew. It wasn't exported much either. It was a local thing, considered a poor mans drug by many of the high society snobs up on Mountainside. Their teenage children, however, were good customers.

"Well man, I just happened to bring a little somethin' somethin' along when I came from home...you know, for just such a occasion. Been savin' it this whole time." He grinned and patted the right thigh pocket on his jumpsuit.

Kreth looked at him askance, and said, "How did you manage to get it past the security screenings?" Her voice was filled with innocent naivete, and Korwin found himself reminded that for all her wisdom on the battlefield, she was still a twenty year old farmgirl from Dantooine. She had no idea how the galaxy worked, beyond how to grow things, how to hide from things and how to kill them.

Korwin laughed, and saw Avery grinning nastily. He looked over at Kreth, and said, "Girly-girl, if you have to ask, you don't need to know." He smiled broadly, and Avery burst out laughing. Even Kierse was chuckling along with them. Haslin smiled minutely, but his eyes shone with mirth.

Kreth just shook her head, irritated, and said, "You guys are stupid. Let's just go get drunk."

They arrived at the landing pad and waited for about ten minutes before a box bearing one of Mos Espa's now regular guard patrol's arrived at the camp. Korwin and his squad ran up to the box, and Avery shouldered his way to the front of the pack. Leaning on the open deck, he shouted to the pilot, "My man just got promoted to Sgt, and we's headed in to Espa to celebrate...think we could catch a ride?"

The pilot hollered back, "Sure! Hop in!" The recon squad grinned in unison and jumped on the box. The vehicle shot skyward and leveled out at about five hundred feet. The ride to Mos Espa from camp now took almost fifteen minutes, and Korwin noticed they were no longer in the Dune Sea, but in the western part of the Xelric Draw. As they approached the city, the box began gently descending, and Korwin found himself wondering if perhaps something was wrong. It usually just dropped when it was landing. He turned a questioning look to the pilot and co-pilot, but they were chatting to each other on their own channel.

It struck Korwin suddenly that he'd never ridden in a box when not going into or out of combat or a patrol. It was always full throttle. They were just heading in for a drink now, and it struck Korwin as rather odd. The box touched down gently on the outskirts, the market square having been taken over by the merchants and townsfolk again. He slid off the edge of the deck and turned to wave to the pilots as they took off and headed back towards the sprawling army camp.

Haslin sniffed, and pulled a pack of deathsticks out of his jumpsuit's left chest pocket. He lit the deathstick, and then said through a cloud of exhaled blue smoke, "So...where's the nearest cantina?"

Kreth shrugged her delicate shoulders, and said, "Hell, I don't know." Looking around as they walked onto a broad main street that ran trough the western sector of the city, she said, "We should probably just ask a local."

Korwin was about to shit all over that idea, when she strolled up to a rather large Devaronian walking out of a squat, nondescript building. He and the others stood by while she spoke with the alien, and then she came back to them and said, "He says there's one called the Oasis that's been popular with the infantry since they opened the town again. It's about ten blocks north."

Korwin glanced around at his squad, a querying eyebrow raised. Receiving a chorus of affirmatives, he grinned, and said, "Move out."

As they were walking, Kreth turned to Korwin and said, "So Magic...what's with you and Mel anyway?"

"Mel? Who's Mel?" Korwin asked, his tone absent. He held a hand out to Avery, index and middle fingers extended in the universal symbol for "smoke".

Kreth rolled her eyes, and said, "You know...Jenna? Jenna Melara? From 1st platoon?"

Korwin lit the smoke, and said, "Oh yeah...nothing man. She's like...a little sister or something." He took a long drag off the deathstick, and slowly exhaled through his nose. "Why you asking?"

Kierse snorted loudly, a lop-sided Corellian grin splitting his face. "Because every Queen needs her court magician!" Avery and Haslin both laughed along with Kierse, but Kreth frowned in disapproval and Korwin's mouth flattened into a thin line.

"Shut the fuck up Kierse. It ain't like that, and it ain't never gonna be like that. I got Eli, man. Melara's just a friend. You should watch what you say. You might piss someone off." His tone was light, but his expression belied the seriousness of his statement. Kierse's smile evaporated like a glass of water left in the midday suns.

"Uh...right. Sorry Magic."

"Ain't nothing." Korwin replied, taking another drag of the deathstick. When they finally arrived at the Oasis, just after sunset, they stepped inside to find that the party was already in full swing. Most of the crowd seemed to be military, the vast majority of those being from the infantry. Korwin spotted Lt. Drendel and his squad sitting at the bar, and started pushing through the crowd towards his fellow team leader. Drendel spotted him and waved, then said something to the group of soldiers occupying the bar stools next to Drendel's squad. They looked in Korwin's direction, nodded respectfully, then stood up and moved to a table further towards the back of the room.

"Heard you made Sgt." Drendel said over the music of the live band, as Korwin took a stool next to him.

Korwin nodded, and said, "Yeah...not really necessary though. I'm already the boss." He grinned and shrugged his shoulders. "Just a formality, man."

"What the hell...I'll buy you a drink anyway." Turning to the bartender, Drendel hollered out, "My friend here just made Sgt. A shot of Cyndari lavawater for everyone at the bar, if you please!" He turned to Korwin, and said, "You ever had lavawater?"

Korwin shook his head, and said, "No, what is it?"

Osla, a stocky, black haired man from Kuat, and Drendel's medic, said, "There's no way to explain it, Magic. You'll just have to try the stuff." He laughed a little, and mumbled something under his breath.

Avery, sitting to Korwin's right, said, "What was that?"

"Nothing man...just wait till the drinks come." Said Osla, his tone merry.

When the shots came, Korwin saw that they were an odd fiery red, and almost seemed to glow. He stared at the shotglass, suspicion evident on his face. Drendel smirked, and said, "Bottom's up Sgt." He patted Korwin on the back, and lifted his shotglass high in the air. "To Magic...may his new rank not inflate his already preposterously large ego any bigger than it already is." A chorus of laughing could be heard up and down the bar. It was immediately followed by a chorus of violent, wracking coughs, as each troop downed their liquor.

Korwin tossed his shot back and was pleasantly surprised to find that it felt almost cool in his mouth, and had a refreshing, berry-like flavor. _Why the hell do they call this lavawater? Must be the color._ He swallowed the delicious liquid, and the reason for the name became immediately apparent. It felt like he had just swallowed a glassful of molten metal, and the burn it produced in his throat was so intense that he thought he might pass out. He began coughing forcefully, and could feel his eyes watering and his nose filling with loose, runny snot.

He grabbed a bar napkin, and shoved it under his leaking nose as he continued hacking, and he could hear the blood pounding in his ears. _Oh shit, that's painful. _He thought. When the coughing finally subsided, he blew his nose long and hard, purging it of it's nasty, viscous contents. Taking a deep breath, he suddenly found himself feeling very lightheaded. He looked slowly around the room, and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. Things were...much sharper, much clearer, but he still didn't feel very...grounded. _Oh, shit, my fucking head._

A broad grin spread across Korwin's face, and he turned to Drendel, and said, "That's the last of that shit man...but fuck! I'm already sauced, man." He shook his head hard, and then grinned at Drendel again. "Your horns look shinier." He noted to him absently.

Drendel, for his part, just laughed at his young friend, and said, "The Cyndari pride themselves on their tolerance for that stuff...even the women! An eighteen year old human girl introduced me to this stuff back in my bounty hunting days...by the force, she was a beauty...anyway, she sat me down at this little place on the beach there, and put a bottle of that between us." He chuckled to himself, and said, "Can't honestly remember much after that."

Korwin looked over at Avery and said, "Hey Ave...what about that smokey-smoke?" He raised an eyebrow and the corner of his mouth twitched upward in the faint beginnings of an anticipatory smile.

Avery looked around the bar, and then back at Korwin, nodding his head. "Yeah, alright man. Let's go outside though." He stood from his stool, and started making his way outside. As he was going, he said, "Any of ya'll wanna join us?" None of the recon troops felt like leaving their stools, much less the cantina, after the lavawater. All of them declined, some less politely than others. Avery shrugged, and muttered, "More for us then, ain't that right Magic?"

Korwin nodded his head drunkenly. He was beginning to feel even more light-headed. "That's right Ave. Let's go." He turned and followed Avery towards the exit, keeping his eyes focused straight ahead. As he was just about to exit the cantina, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He stepped forward and whirled around, finding himself face to face with Sgt. Nyre Dankin, a Squad Sergeant in 2nd Platoon.

Dankin was a pinch-faced, broad-shouldered toad of a man, who was lower than shit in Korwin's opinion. Tatooine was his first deployment, but he acted like he wasn't as green as most of the infantry troops on planet. The Imp's assault on Mos Espa had been the first true battle they'd experienced, but you'd never know it if you talked to Dankin.

Korwin had dealt with him four times before; once, while talking to Melara. The asshole had stomped up to them and demanded that she go do...something. The lavawater made thought difficult. The other incidents disappeared from his alcohol addled mind, and suddenly the only thing he could remember was that he didn't like this man at all. He wasn't too far gone that he didn't remember himself though. His expression neutral, but his tone laced with steel, he said, "What do you want Dankin?"

Dankin's gaze was intense, and he stared into Korwin's eyes as he said, "You know, I've been hearing all sorts of shit about you, '_Magic'_." He spat Korwin's nickname out as if it left a bad taste in his mouth. "You and one of my..._privates_." He brushed a hand over his crotch as he finished his sentence, and a few infantrymen behind him snickered.

Korwin sniffed, and spat lazily on the floor in front of Dankin's foot. "Best be keeping to yourself, if you know what's good for you boy." He heard Avery laugh softly behind him, and recognized the menacing undertone in the sound. Avery was ready for a fight.

Dankin went red in the face, and said, "You little shit, I'll have those fucking stripes of yours within a fucking week! There's no way you can go that long without fucking up. And I'll be there to watch it all happen."

"What the fuck did I do that you have to fuck with me all of the sudden?" Korwin asked, his temper beginning flare.

"You've been messing around with Melara, you dumb schutta."

Korwin stared at the man with disbelief writ plain on his face. "First off, I got a woman already. Second off, you're coming mighty close to a good ol' fashioned Tide's style ass-whippin'. I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, or why you'd even give a fuck if I was, so you need to back off." His voice was beginning to rise, and he could feel his fists clenched at his sides.

"Whatever you say..._Magic_." He turned around and walked towards the back of the room, where Korwin saw several Twilek dancing girls working on platforms. A small horde of Dankin's infantry cronies followed him, and Korwin noticed a familiar face in the flock. Xanas Farrayn III waved at him and offered a sheepish grin, before following the mass of infantry troops to the half naked girls.

Korwin turned to Avery, and said, "Fuck em'. Let's go get high." They walked around the building, and into an alleyway. Stopping about thirty feet down the alley, Korwin watched as Avery withdrew a small pipe that he'd carved from a japor snippet he'd found. He pulled a tiny sac from a pocket and removed a small, fuzzy green and blue bud from inside. Placing it in the bowl, he pulled out his lighter, and sparked it. He roasted half the bowl in one big hit, his chest expanding to almost ridiculous proportions. He smiled lazily, and handed the pipe to Korwin.

Korwin stared at the unburnt half, and his mouth began watering in anticipation. He put the pipe to his lips and passed the lighter over it slowly, inhaling as he did. He closed his eyes and removed the lighter, inhaling until he felt that the bowl had burned itself out. He opened his eyes and looked at it. Sticking his pinky finger in, he felt silky soft ash. He handed it back to Avery, and said, "Shit's assed, man." His voice came out pinched and tight, a result of him trying to release as little of the smoke in his lungs as possible. Avery finally blew out his hit, and nothing was left but a faint wisp of white smoke.

Korwin held his hit for as long as his lungs would allow, before blowing it out in one long breath. He felt the old feeling of euphoria creep over him, and his eyes grew a bit heavier. This was what he'd been missing. He grinned, and watched happily as Avery loaded another bowl, this one bigger. They smoked that one, and another like it before deciding to finally go back inside. When they entered, they found that the music had grown louder and faster, and the Twilek girls were completely nude now, gyrating and dancing with wild abandon, much to the delight of the assembled male infantryman.

Korwin and Avery admired from afar, preferring instead to return to the bar, where the rest of the recon troops seemed well on their way to incapacitation through inebriation. Korwin sat down next to Drendel again, and turned a half-lidded gaze on his Zabrak friend. "You don't know what you're missing."

Drendel shrugged, and held up a glass of some odd, fizzy blue liquid. "I'm fine."

Korwin hailed the bartender, and said, "Corellian whiskey, double, straight up."

The man got him his drink and then said, "You paying, or what?"

Korwin licked his lips slowly, then grinned, and pointed to Dankin, by the dancers. "It's on his tab." The bartender nodded, and walked away to serve another customer further down the bar. He dispatched a waitress to collect his fee for the drink. Korwin turned back to the bar and took a long, slow drink of his whiskey, luxuriating in the contrast between the velvety smooth texture, and the fiery path it traced down his throat. He sat there in silence, enjoying the company of his closest friends, sipping his drink. All in all, it was turning out to be a good evening.

"Who the fuck do you think you are, asshole!" Dankin's booming voice rang out over the din created by the band, and they ceased their playing. The dancers stopped dancing, and all eyes turned towards them.

"Why, I'm Magic. I thought you knew." Korwin said, his tone almost playful. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm trying to enjoy my drink. Go away."

Dankin scowled at him, and said, "So tell me...does the Queen give good head?"

Kreth said, "That's too much Dankin. Mel's not like that and you know it."

Dankin continued on, unperturbed. "She's a pretty sweet little piece of ass, isn't she? I wouldn't mind slipping it to her. So how is she..._magical?_" He laughed, and a chorus of laughs went up from the infantrymen as well. He stared at Korwin, his gaze unwavering, until finally, Korwin turned around and sat down. "That's what I thought. Recon guys are good for sneaking around, and hiding. That's their specialty. You and Melara are perfect for each other. The coward and the fuck up." The silence lasted only as long as it took for him to walk away from Korwin. Then the music started again, and the conversations started. But now, they were about something else. They were calling him a coward. A chickenshit. He felt his face grow hot, not with shame, but with anger.

He looked around at his squad, and said, "Who's got a blaster pistol?"

Kreth stared at him, open-mouthed, her eyes open wide, and Haslin said, "I ain't cool with that, boss."

Kierse said nothing. Avery grinned maliciously, and pulled his from it's holster. Kreth said, "No, Magic...Korwin, you can't do this. You're a good kid."

Korwin looked at her, and snapped, "You don't know what the fuck you're talking about Kreth." He looked at the pistol, and ejected the blaster pak. Making sure the firing lock was on, he gripped it firmly by the barrel and strode after Dankin, his face set in a mask of rage.

He heard Kreth and the others protesting, but knew that Avery wouldn't let them interfere. He would handle this like they did back in Tides. He'd show Dankin what it meant to badmouth him, to badmouth his unit, and to badmouth his friends. He found Dankin at the same place he'd been before, standing next to several dancers, grinning lewdly. Everyone continued on with what they were doing, even as Korwin grabbed Dankin's shoulder to turn him around.

Dankin spun slowly, and said, "What the fuck do you want?"

"Nothing, bitch." Korwin swung from the hip. Long experience had taught him that the power of a blow depended less upon the strength of your arm than it did the motion of the hips and torso. The momentum of your upper body weight twisting so hard put far more force behind one's blow than a simple swing from the shoulder. It was rather like a whip, like the roll and flick of the wrist sending the lash hissing through the air towards it's target.

The first blow came so fast that Dankin didn't even register surprise. The butt of the pistol caught him squarely on his left eye socket with a resounding crack. His legs turned to jelly, and he began slumping to the floor. Korwin caught him with his left hand, snarling, "Oh no, motherfucker, you ain't gettin' outa this one." He pushed Dankin up against one of the dancing tables, and one of the Twilek girls screamed, realizing what was happening.

Korwin raised his arm, and brought the pistol down hard on the bridge of Dankin's nose. The wet snap echoed in Korwin's ears, and blood sprayed in every direction. Dankin started to scream, but it was cut short by a brutal blow to his mouth. The dancing girls screamed for him.Korwin watched in satisfaction as Dankin's front teeth shattered, his mouth now a bloody ruin. He hammered down blow upon blow on the helpless Sgt, until Dankin's face was barely recognizable.

The music had stopped again, and Korwin noted that somewhere in the back of his mind. Dankin's eyes rolled back in his head, and he emitted a wheezing groan. Korwin stepped back and threw the pistol on the floor. His breath was coming in gasps, and his chest was heaving. His expression now one of satisfaction, he said, "There's some fuckin' magic for ya, Dankin."

"Holy shit...you're fucking dead, schutta!" Korwin didn't know the man who said it, so he felt no remorse as he casually socked the man in the nose. His head snapped back, and Korwin followed it up with solid left hook to the lower jaw. The man dropped to the floor, and Korwin sniffed disdainfully at him. Looking around, he said, "Anyone else?" He felt a sharp blow in his left kidney, and cried out, whirling around. A tall bothan was standing in front of him, his hands held up like a boxer. Korwin was about to attack him, when a heavy ceramic ashtray smacked him in the back of the head. He crumpled, and revealed Avery standing behind him.

There was another moment of stillness, before chaos erupted. As one, the infantrymen swarmed in towards Avery and Korwin, who quickly went back to back, viciously pummeling anyone who got close enough to let them do it. Drendel, seeing what was going on, alerted Korwin's squad, who responded with admirable alacrity despite their drunken state. From there, it was a battle. Recon vs. Infantry. Korwin realized immediately that they were outnumbered, but didn't worry too much. Recon was always outnumbered.

He ducked under a clumsy swing from a drunk human man and hammered his right fist into his solar plexus. As he doubled over, Korwin jerked his knee up to meet the man's face. His nose broke with a sharp crack, and his head snapped back, even as his body continued falling forward. Korwin stepped out of the way, and was suddenly grabbed from behind by a strong pair of arms. He struggled mightily, but was unable to break the man's grip. A short human soldier approached him, his fist cocked back. Just as he was about to strike, a bottle smashed him in the side of the head. Korwin was surprised to see who was holding it. Apparently, so was the man holding him. His grip loosened just enough, and Korwin managed to pull himself free. Spinning around, he whipped an elbow across his assailant's face. The troop proved to be a large, orange-skinned Twilek male.

The force of the blow snapped the soldier's head to the side, causing his lekku to whip around at Korwin's head. He ducked underneath, and then grabbed one of them, yanking hard. The Twilek cried out in pain, and Korwin twisted it hard, driving the troop to his knees. He pounded him several times in the head with his other fist, until he fell forward, unconscious. He turned back to his rescuer, and said, "Farrayn, ain't you fighting for the wrong guys?"

Farrayn shrugged. "Not the way I see it." He turned around and threw a blow at a tall human corporal, only to be punched hard in the eye. Korwin would have helped, but he had more pressing matters, like the guy coming at him with a...a gaffi stick? What the hell? He was so shocked by the weapon in the troops hand, that the blow landed solidly on the side of his head. His vision swam, and he felt himself become one with the floor. His vision slowly faded, as the pounding in his head increased. _This one's gonna hurt in the morning._ He though, as he fell into unconsciousness.

* * *

"That was...remarkably brutal." Laina said, her tone subdued. "I wouldn't have thought that of you."

"It was a part of me then. It's not now. But I can't deny that it happened. It happened. You wanted the whole story, so I'm giving it to you."

Laina nodded her head, and said, "Well, I think that will be sufficient for today. I'll see you tomorrow Mr. Nalan."

Korwin stood up and said, "See you tomorrow."


	19. Interlude: The Doctor I

It was the end of the night shift in the Trauma Ward of the Coruscant University Hosptial, and Avery Azen sat in the nurses station, sipping a cup of hot caf. He glanced up at the chrono on the wall, and sighed as he saw that he still had another ten minutes to go. He downed the rest of the caf, and fought to keep his eyes open. He'd been on duty for twenty hours now, and he had a class in nine. Sleep wasn't going to be a priority, as he had to finish studying for his Twilek anatomy final.

He'd already been granted a doctorate and qualified to work on humans and near-humans, and could have graduated Coruscant's best med school as a monospecies trauma specialist. He'd instead chosen to go for a ten year degree that included several alien species. He had a leg up on most of the other students, with his rather intimate knowledge of the interior anatomy of several species.

He closed his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose, and then ran a hand over his slightly grown out hair. If it went too much further, it would turn into a small afro. _Have to cut it before then._ He thought absently._ Should shave soon too._ He realized, running a hand over a painfully stubbly face. He heard one the wards many 2-1B units whirring past the station, probably in search of some medical supply or another.

He looked up at the clock again, and willed it to move faster. He wanted to catch the 6:30 skybus, but couldn't if he didn't get out of there within the next five minutes. He stared at the clock as the time ticked by agonizingly slowly. When it finally his six, his relief doctor, Bruzl Wix, arrived. Avery nodded to the chubby Rodian. Few Rodians ever made anything of themselves, but Bruzl was a notable exception.

"Morning Avery." Bruzl said in Rodian.

Avery's response was in basic. "Night Bruzl." He stood up and walked past his friend, too tired to talk any more than that. He walked to the employee locker rooms, and trudged to his locker, keying it open with his thumb print. He didn't bother showering. He didn't have any blood on him, and it could wait until he woke up for classes.

After changing from his scrubs and white doctor's coat into a pair of dark blue, baggy trousers and a white shirt with a black bantha leather coat, he pulled his small backpack from his locker and closed it. Rubbing his eyes, he yawned loudly, and then started on his way home. The walk out of the hospital and off the campus was a blur, and it seemed like only minutes before he reached the station. He arrived at the skybus station just in time to watch the 6:30 pull away.

He walked slowly over to the covered waiting area, and sat down to wait for the next skybus. It would be a good half hour. He looked over to his right at the only other occupants of the waiting area; an attractive young near human woman and what appeared to be her son. He couldn't readily identify the particular species of near human, but she was certainly easy on the eyes.

Her short, stylish hair was an odd shade of almost translucent white, with deep blue highlights that shimmered as the city-lights played across it. Her skin was pale, but with a faint lavender blush to her cheeks. When she glanced back at him, though, it was her eyes that caught him. Her pupils were slit like a cats, and the cornea started out the same deep royal blue as the highlights in her hair, before fading in a strange sunburst pattern into a vivid violet color.

The little boy, who couldn't have been older than five, had very similar features, although his skin was perhaps a bit darker than his mother's. He was trying to climb one of the support beams that held up the awning, and was doing an admirable job of it. The woman must have felt his eyes on her and her son, because she turned and smiled at him.

Avery could see sharp canines poking out over her lower lip when she did that. It was actually kind of...cute. Judging by the eyes, the teeth, and the little boy's admirable climbing skills, he guessed they were a species of near human that had evolved feline qualities on their homeworld.

Avery smiled back, and then sat and listened as she berated her young son for climbing on the supports. He couldn't understand her, but he knew what she was saying. He chuckled softly, and looked out at the busy skylanes. Speeders of every shape and size, from personal vehicles to trash trucks, whizzed by, vertically and horizontally.

He glanced over at the woman again, unable to keep his gaze from her for long. She really was beautiful. _Damn Ave,_ he thought to himself, _listen to you, man. Soundin' all soft and shit._ He sighed. Probably for the better. He'd had enough of being a hardass. After his conversation with Magic at the end of the Battle of Coruscant, he'd decided to be done with fighting. For good. Just like Korwin. _And who'da thunk?_

He was lost in his personal musings when he heard a rapid-fire burst of some strange, lilting tongue from the woman. It sounded panicked. He looked just in time to see the boy fall off the support beam and land hard on his elbow. He immediately began to cry, and sat up holding his hurt arm. His mother swooped him up and held him to her, his head resting on her shoulder. She looked down at the arm, and gasped. The boy had not stopped crying yet, and Avery decided that he couldn't not help. The kid was hurt. It was what he did.

"Excuse me...I was just wonderin' if I could take a look at his arm. I'm a doctor, I work at the University Hospital." He stood up and took a step towards them.

The mother answered in a lovely, lilting basic, saying in a somewhat panicked tone of voice, "Thank you so much...he's bleeding!"

As Avery gently pried the child's good hand away from the wound on his elbow, he saw that it was indeed steadily pouring forth blood. It looked like a fairly good-sized gash, but it was nothing he couldn't fix. He said, "Just sit down and hold him on your lap. The cut looks a lot worse than it is." As she followed his instructions, Avery opened his backpack and removed his small medkit.

Taking out a small scanning device, he set the medkit aside and passed the scanning device over the crying boy's elbow. Nodding to himself at what he saw on the screen, he put the scanner back in his pack, and said, "Well, it ain't broken, but it's bruised pretty good. Let me get this cut dealt with, and I'll make him a little sling to wear for now. We wanna keep that joint immobilized until it has time to start healing."

He went to work on the cut, and within a minute, had the bleeding stopped and the wound bandaged neatly. Hurriedly fashioning a makeshift sling from a long, rolled bandage, he set the boy's elbow in it, and said, "Try to keep it still okay? Make sure your mommy helps you get dressed and everything, okay? If it hurts to move it, don't move it." Putting his supplies away, he grinned at the little boy, and said, "All done little man. All better, right?"

The little boy sniffled and shook his head, saying, "I think I need a robot arm." Avery laughed, and his mother did as well. The boy looked up at Avery and his mother, his eyes shining, and said, "I saw a guy with a robot arm on the holo. It was all shiny. I want a shiny arm." His mood seemed to be improving, and his mother had a small smile on her face, as her son cuddled into her and spoke to Avery.

Avery grinned at the boy, and then up at his mother. Looking at the boy again, he said, "You wanna see somethin' real cool, little man?" When the boy nodded eagerly, he smiled, and removed his coat. Holding his bare right arm out, he traced a small tendon on the underside of his forearm. There was a beep, and a soft hissing sound, and a little panel popped open and slid to the side, revealing a complex network of wires and flashing lights. He repeated the process with his left arm, and held them both out to the boy. His mother breathed in sharply at the sight, but the child's face was alight with wonder.

"Wooooow!" The pain in his arm all but forgotten the boy leaned over and peered down at the circuitry within Avery's artificial skin. "Where'd you get those?" He asked, all wide-eyed with wonder and awe.

Avery smiled, a little wistfully this time, and said, "In a special hospital, up in space." He saw the mother's face fill with sympathy as he flipped closed the control panel covers on his mechanical arms, and slipped his coat back on. "Pretty cool, huh?" Avery asked the boy, ignoring the pity on the mother's face, a corner of his mouth quirked up in a half smile.

The kid grinned, and said, "Yeah! What's your name, mister?"

"Avery. My name's Avery. What's your name?" He asked, genuinely curious about these people now.

"I'm Conrin, and this is my mommy." The boy replied, still beaming.

His mother smiled, and offered a respectful bow of the head. "I'm Selithra. Pleased to meet you. And thank you for your help."

Avery shrugged, and said, "It's nothin'. It's what I do." Hearing the sound of the airbus approaching, he said, "Looks like our ride's here."

Selithra smiled, and said, "We're actually waiting for the next one, to Eltrani district."

Avery said, "Well then...it was good to meet you."

"Likewise...Avery."

Avery stepped on the skybus as it's doors opened, and looked out the window to see little Conrin waving to him. He waved back, and then settled back in his seat, resolved to stay awake until his stop. He managed to do so, but only just. When he stepped off the bus, he turned straight for his building, and began walking down the great metal walkway. He brushed past the other pedestrians, reveling in the anonymity of living on Coruscant. So many people, and yet nobody who knew you.

At the same time, the loneliness was beginning to wear on him. He laughed softly at that, drawing a few stares from those nearby. _Always lonely; neveralone._ It was when he started thinking like that, that his life fell into perspective and he realized that for all his post-war achievements (which were wildly beyond anything he orhis family had ever thought possible), he was essentially just another broken, lonely veteran.

The war still haunted him. Every time he looked at the senate dome, and thought of Juri, he wanted to cry. He couldn't sleep through a night without waking up from some imagined sound, or from a nightmare. Sometimes, he still dreamed about the moment that had taken his arms from him. He'd had five girlfriends and various flings since the end of the war, when he'd gotten out of the army hospital and settled on Coruscant.

The girlfriends hadn't been able to handle the dreams, or the emotions that sudden memories could bring forth. The flings were a result of his unwillingness to try anymore. Of course, his unforgiving schedule and stand-offish demeanor towards his generally wealthier peerage in school and the medical field might not have helped much either.

When he reached his building, he went through the automatic doors and walked straight through the lobby. His turbolift ride to his floor was a solitary one, with no other riders entering the lift. He got off on his floor and trudged wearily to his apartment. He opened the door and stepped inside, stopping just inside the door to remove his shoes. He went into the living room and flipped on his computer station to begin working on his test material. As the computer started up, he walked into the kitchen and looked into his refrigerator. He wasn't much of a cook, and there really wasn't much in there. _Don't feel like cookin' anyways._

Stepping over to the food synthesizer, he pressed in the number for ch'ala smoked on a spur-wood plank with herbs and cutza fruit. The synth hummed for a few seconds, and then a green light came on. He opened the synth and pulled out his food, taking it to his computer. As he sat down to work though, he found that he couldn't get his mind off of the beautiful young woman at the bus stop.

She really was a beautiful girl.

* * *

Selithra Il'Ceres smiled happily to herself as she walked through one of Coruscants enormous botanical gardens in the upper reaches of the eastern hemisphere. Her stomach was full from a good meal, her son was enjoying two weeks with his grandparents on their homeworld of Callix, and she didn't have to work for three more days. The sun was shining, and the gardens were filled with people enjoying the lovely weather and the lovely (if artificially produced) scenery.

She thought of her son, with her mother and father on Callix. He'd left four days ago, and had been in high spirits despite his hurt elbow. It had only been two days since the fall, and ithadstill beenpaining him a bit. She'd taken him to his regular doctor the next day, who'd told her that whoever had done the patch-up job on the cut had been a miracle worker...she would have said he'd need stitches for it. She also marveled at the sling made of gauze wrap. Once they'd gotten the bandage on Conrin's arm changed and had given him a proper sling, he was prescribed some mild painkillers and sent on his way with his mother.

She was thankful that Avery had been at the skybus station, and wished she'd had time to thank him properly. He'd been fairly handsome actually, although he seemed perhaps a little rough around the edges. And the mechanical arms had been a shocker. They'd looked so natural, until he'd popped the maintenance consoles. But Conrin had thought it was so cool, and had completely forgotten the pain in his arm. All the way home, he'd chatted excitedly about the "robot man".

Selithra sighed and stopped to smell a particularly lovely fiery orange blossom with pink trimming the edge of each delicate petal. She smiled at it's sweetness, and wished for a moment that her son was with her. She got lonely when he went to see her parents. She had quite a few friends on Coruscant, but it wasn't the same. Deciding she'd keep this flower, she plucked it out of the soil, and continued walking. Up ahead was a small café, with an abundance of outdoor seating. There were no walls or gates. The botanical gardens on Coruscant weren't so much gardens as they were simulated countryside's with carefully controlled environments. The outdoor café's and homely little inns and bed and breakfasts that one could patronize were all designed to give the place a 'quaint' sort of feeling. Nice and slow living, a break from city life.

Selithra hadn't been planning on stopping at the café, or anywhere for that matter. She'd already eaten, and was on her way to the exit to hail a skycab. But something stopped her. It was a voice...one she thought she recognized. "I'll take it. To be honest, I'm pretty sick of the trauma ward. I've seen enough of that shit...er, stuff...sorry." She was sure she recognized that voice. Another voice was present though, a female voice.

"Don't worry about Avery. I understand what you mean. I did most of my internship in a trauma ward as well, so I know what can be like."

Selithra turned her head, and caught sight of Avery and a tall, dark-haired woman standing from a table. Avery smirked, and said, "I'm sure you do." His tone was filled with irony, and Selithra wasn't sure the woman had picked up on it. "I'll be waiting for a call then." He shook hands with the woman, and then walked away from the table as the woman headed inside the small building that served as the café proper and the payment area. Selithra watched as Avery turned and walked away from her, and decided that she might as well try and talk to him.

She began walking after him and called his name, "Avery!"

* * *

Avery smiled half-heartedly at the woman in front of him as she finished making her offer. It was a good job, no doubt about that. He'd be working as physician in a private practice, making good money, and it wouldn't be nearly as crazy as the trauma ward. Deciding to take it, he said, "I'll take it. To be honest, I'm pretty sick of the trauma ward. I've seen enough of that shit...er, stuff...sorry." He cursed himself inwardly for his slip, but was relieved when she told him not to worry about it.

He listened with half an ear, and responded with half a brain as they wrapped their conversation up. When she said that she understood his dislike for the trauma ward, he muttered, "I'm sure you do." _You don't know the fuckin' half of it._ He thought to himself. They shook hands and his new boss went to pay and "powder her nose". Avery decided it was time to go home and take a nap. He was walking out of the outdoor eating area, when he was stopped by a woman's voice calling his name.

"Avery!"

He turned around, and was pleasantly surprised to find the woman from the skybus station walking up to him. He smiled at her, and she returned the gesture, her long canines just peeking from beneath her top lip. "Selithra, right? From the skybus station."

Selithra ducked her head, faintly blushing at his instant recognition of her. Looking back up at him she said, "Yeah...you patched my son up when he fell and hurt his arm."

He grinned and ran a hand through his thick hair. "Yeah, I remember that. How's he doin'?"

"Oh he's fine, he's fine. I took him to his doctor the next day. She said you were a miracle worker when she saw the cut. She said he probably would have gotten stitches if not for you. She liked the sling too." She realized she was beginning to ramble, and cut herself off with a nervous smile on her face. "How are you?"

Avery shrugged, and gestured for her to walk with him. She fell in step alongside him, and he set a leisurely pace, saying, "Good. Things are okay. I just finished a multi-species doctorate. That was a job interview for a private clinic in city center. So, things are good." He looked over at her, and said, "How about you? Where's...what's his name? Conrin?"

She was pleased that he remembered her son as well, and said, "Yeah, Conrin. He's fine. He's on Callix, with my parents. That's where we're from."

"Never heard of it, to be honest." He scratched his head, feeling faintly embarrassed by that.

"Really? It's near the core. Where are you from?"

"Originally?" She nodded her head. "This little place way out on the outer rim called Juno IV."

Selithra raised an eyebrow. "Never heard of your planet either. Guess we're even. So how'd you end up all the way over here on Coruscant, becoming a doctor?"

Avery licked his lips slowly, and then shrugged his shoulder, saying, "Oh, you know...I just made my way in planet by planet."

Selithra thought that he sounded a bit evasive with his answer, but decided not to press. _Not like he's my man or anything...although._ "So, how long have you been here?" She asked him.

He though about it for a moment, then said, "About ten years now. Give or take a couple months. How 'bout you?"

"Mmmm...about seven years. I came when I was still pregnant with Conrin."

"I see...so, that flower for me?" Avery grinned disarmingly at her, and watched as the faint lavender blush in her cheeks began to grow deeper.

"Well...I-uh...I just picked it earli..."

Avery laughed, and cut her off mid-sentence. "It's cool, I didn't mean to put you on the spot like that. I was just foolin'."

Selithra composed herself quickly, and said, "Oh, of course." She was about to go on talking, trying to regain her equilibrium, when he asked another strange question. Well, strange to her anyway.

"You wanna get some dinner tonight?" Selithra looked up at Avery, unsure as to whether or not he was being serious. He probably just wanted to get some pussy and then ditch her. That's what most guys were like in the first place; chances for a lasting relationship didn't improve when you were a single mother.

Despite all her misgivings however, her answer came only a nanosecond after the question was asked. "Absolutely."

Avery looked at his wrist chrono, and said, "Eight okay?"

"Eight's fine."

"Alright...why don't you give me your vidphone code, and I'll call for directions around six."

Selithra was on the losing end of a battle to keep herself from smiling, as she gave him her number and watched him walk away. For some reason, she couldn't help but feel that she had just made a move in a very positive direction. He seemed like such a nice guy. _And a doctor, at that! Force I hope this one works out._

* * *

Dinner hadn't been at all as she'd imagined it would be. He'd asked where she'd wanted to go, and had then taken her there. Upon seeing the rather pricey menu items, he'd shrugged his shoulders, and told her to get whatever she wanted. She'd ordered something small, since she knew she wouldn't be eating most of it.

She never ate much on a first date. It wasn't a conscious decision she'd made, but at some point in her dating career, she'd discovered that she just didn't do it. One of her girlfriends eventually told her it was a subconscious need to keep herself from looking like a pig in front of her date. It was an answer she detested, but accepted as probable truth.

Like most men she'd been out with, Avery felt absolutely no need to disguise his love of food...or his somewhat questionable table manners. He'd spoken with his mouth full twice, and normally that was a surefire date killer for Selithra. But for some reason, she'd overlooked it this time. He'd also held his fork like it was a shovel, and had perhaps eaten a bit too fast for her tastes.

But he'd also really listened when she'd talked, and she'd only caught him staring at her chest once. That had been interesting. Most men had the good grace to blush and look away, or at least look apologetic. He'd been cool as a cucumber, realizing he'd been caught, and had met her gaze with an appreciative smile. He'd then shrugged, as if to say, 'I'm male, what did you really expect?' For some reason, she wasn't as offended as she should have been.

Currently, they were walking arm-in-arm along one of Coruscant's great durasteel walkways, taking in the view that being between buildings provided. Selithra smiled over at her date, and said, "So you never did tell me how you ended up on Coruscant."

Avery raised an eyebrow at the statement, and said, "Sure I did...planet by planet."

Selithra gave him a playful swat on the shoulder and said, "That's pretty darn vague there, Dr. Azen." She was a bit confused when he stopped walking, and gently extricated his arm from hers. "What's wrong?"

He turned his face to hers, and smiled gently, saying, "Nothing's wrong." Then, looking out over the horizon, he said, "I was a soldier. I came with the Alliance."

Selithra felt as if she'd been slapped in the face. She bit her lip, wondering if she should ask, and then decided that there was no reason not to. The worst he could do was not answer. _No, _she amended to herself, _the worst he could do is turn around and leave and refuse to speak to you again._ "Is that how...I mean, is that what happened to your arms?"

He nodded, his gaze still on the nighttime skyline, and said, "Yup." He raised a hand, and pointed towards the tall spire of what she recognized as the Coruscant Fidelity Bank, the center of the financial district. "On a walkway, on the eastern side of Cor-Fi."

"I'm so sorry. I had no idea. When I saw them that night at the station, I had no idea that was why." She looked down at the durasteel under her feet, and kicked herself internally for bringing it up. He was a veteran. And she'd probably just dredged up some rather painful memories for him. She was about to apologize further, when Avery's soft voice interrupted her train of thought.

"I was in the army; I was a recon man. Sgt. Avery Azen when I lost my arms. We were...like elite scout troops, I guess you could say. Our official designation was LRIS, but the grunts called us larry's. The letters stand for Long Range Intelligence Squad.

"There were five of us to a squad, and we used to get dropped into enemy territory, sometimes more than ten miles behind their lines. Our job was to do detailed reconnaissance of designated area's, take troop counts, record terrain features and enemy equipment, stuff like that. We did ambushes sometimes too."

Selithra was sure her eyes were the size of dinnerplates right now. She'd never met a war veteran before. There weren't many on Callix, as the people there tended to keep themselves out of galactic affairs, and Callix was kept out of both the Clone Wars and the Civil War. Standing in front of one, and being able to look at the place where he'd lost a part of himself, was a humbling experience.

She wouldn't have been able to live in the sunlight on this world with her son, for the simple fact that they weren't plain humans, had the Empire not been defeated. Near humans had been just as despised by the Emperor as aliens were, and the Callix were no different. And here was a man who had fought against that, had sacrificed his arms and who knew how much more so that she and her son, and others of alien and near-human ancestry could live in peace.

Unable to think of anything else to say at the moment, Selithra merely said, "Thank you."

Avery felt a rush of emotion at the simple words of gratitude Selithra had offered him. No one had ever expressed gratitude to him for fighting in the war. It wasn't something he'd ever worried about, or even thought about. After all, it hadn't been his choice. But there it was. She was thanking him. Korwin's face flashed through his mind, followed by other friends from the war, both alive and dead. The emotions grew in strength, and he felt a long-standing wall begin to crumble under the enormous pressure.

Selithra watched the play of emotions running across Avery's face at her simple "thank you". He stared at her for what seemed like an eternity, and then his face became tight and his lower lip began to shake ever so slightly. She watched as he clamped his teeth shut, and the tears began rolling down his cheeks. His shoulders began to shake, and he closed his eyes, his face turning down to the ground.

Selithra had never seen a man cry like this, and it broke her heart to see him in such obvious pain. Slowly, tentatively, she put her arms around him and drew him to her. The moment her arms were around him, he clung to her and buried his face in the crook of her neck. She held him as he sobbed wordlessly on her shoulder, ignoring the looks of the few passers-by.

When his tears at last subsided, he pulled back, and ran a hand across his eyes. "Gods, I'm fuckin' sorry 'bout that Selithra. I didn't mean for you to see that." His voice was raw with emotion, and still full of pain, and it cut her to her core when she heard it. She hated seeing others in pain, and he'd obviously been in pain for a long time.

"Don't apologize...you have nothing to apologize for. I can't begin to imagine the things you've seen and done. I think that if I could, I'd want to cry sometimes too." She smiled sincerely at him, and then decided that he might benefit from some mindless entertainment. She said, "How about we go back to my place and watch a cheesy comedy holo?"

Avery sniffled a bit, thinking he sounded rather pathetic, but was glad of the quick change in subject. "Yeah, sure. Why not." Feeling a not-quite-forced grin spreading across his tear-streaked face, he said, "Lead the way."


	20. Interlude: The Doctor II

Here, dear readers, is the second part of Avery's interlude. I wasn't really expecting to have to write it in two parts, but I couldn't find a way to communicate in one chapter the feelings thatI wanted to convey. So, two parts instead of one. Hopefully you'll all enjoy it.

I know some of you are also probably wondering what's going on with the war on Tatooine. I am currently in the process of writing the next chapter, although it's giving me a little trouble. I hope to have it up within a week or so. Anyway, on with the sto...interlude. Oh, and uh...if you review my story, I'll buy you a new car.

* * *

_Today's the day. It's been ten years now...I miss you all so much._

"Dr. Azen, there's a woman on the vidphone in your office." Came through the exam room door.

Avery glanced up from the Rodian adolescent he was performing a physical on, and said to the receptionist on the other side, "Just have her leave a message. I'm kinda busy right at the moment." Turning back to his patient without waiting for a reply, he said, "Sorry about that, my man. You know how it is." He finished the physical, and then sent the kid out to his parents. Walking into his office, he sat down and turned on his vidphone, checking the messages. He was pleased to see Selithra's face come up.

"Hello Avery. I hope you're having a good day at work. I just thought I'd call and invite you to dinner tonight. Conrin is spending the night with some friends, and I thought maybe I could cook you something. You did say you weren't much of a cook, right? So, how's six-thirty sound to you?" The message ended there, with a smile and suggestive raise of the eyebrow.

Avery hit the respond button, and his vidphone automatically dialed Selithra's number. When she answered, she smiled brightly upon seeing who it was. "Avery! I was hoping to hear back from you."

"Yeah, cool. So uh, how 'bout seven instead? I gotta get home and shower an' change after work." Avery said to her.

Selithra tilted her head to the left slightly, and a cheshire grin spread across her face. "Well, you know, Conrin's going to be at his friend's house all night...you could come and shower here. Just bring your workout sweats from the clinic and you won't have to stop at home." She played her tongue over the tip of one of her fangs as she waited for his answer. She had a habit of doing that while thinking or waiting, he'd noticed. It was rather endearing, and Avery found himself unable to say no.

"Yeah, alright then. I'll be over at six thirty, sweats in hand."

"I'll be waiting, handsome." Avery waited until she'd ended the call, and then leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes. He took a slow, deep breath, and then looked over at the chrono. Four fifty-eight.

Calling to the receptionists desk, he said, "Alsa, do I have any more appointments today?"

"No Dr. Azen. Kleebin was the last one for today."

Rubbing his eyes wearily, Avery said, "Cool. I'm out then. I got some things to take care of today." Standing from his desk, he walked over to the small mantle on the wall near the door and pulled a dark green sweat suit down. All of the other doctor's at the practice had put up holo's of family, or art, or something like that. Avery put up sweat suits for working out after work. Having just turned thirty three, Avery was rather proud of himself for the shape he was in. Most thirty three year old men with a job like his were already expanding in the middle. Not Avery; he was just as chiseled and rock hard as when he'd been sneaking around with Magic and the gang, patching up their boo-boos.

He chuckled at that, remembering his old friends. _Ten motherfuckin' years. Godsdamn._ He looked down at his forearms and hands. They looked real enough, and even felt like real, warm, living flesh to the touch. But he knew. They felt pain like his old arms did. They reacted just like his old arms did, after he'd spent weeks getting used to them. But he knew. _Ten years._

Shaking off his heavy thoughts, he stuffed his sweat suit into his backpack, zipped it up and walked out of his office. He threw a wave to the receptionists as he left, and said, "Have a good evenin' ladies. I'll see ya'll in a couple days." The girl's goodbyes rang hollow in his ears; as hollow as his own had been. He wasn't much for sincerity these days. The only time he could muster any up was when he was with Selithra.

They'd been seeing each other fairly steadily for almost two months now. That in and of itself wasn't terribly amazing. What was amazing was that she had yet to let him have sex with her, and yet he was still sticking around. Most of the time, he'd be gone if she hadn't given it up within two weeks. Hell, back in Tides, in his bad old days in the gang, he'd been able to literally go from one girls bed in the morning, to another's in the afternoon and yet another's at night. He could fit more in if he was particularly...motivated.

He didn't feel that way now. He still thought about it, of course; craved it even. But for some reason, it wasn't the most important thing. As much as he craved the sex they'd yet to have, he craved the simple time together more. As he walked to the skybus station, he realized why. He was empty, most of the time.

He'd bled himself out emotionally during the war, and for the last ten years, he'd been running on empty. He could feel the hollowness inside, that vacuous space where his soul should have been. For a while, when he'd first been discharged, alcohol and a healthy supply of rhondis, courtesy of old Juno IV connections, had helped to fill the void. When that had stopped working, he'd decided to try and do something with his life.

Thus had begun his ten year long pursuit of one of the most comprehensive courses of medical study available. That hadn't filled the void either. But it had taken his mind off it. When he was studying, he was too busy to feel the pain. He didn't have time for it. So he threw himself into school and internships, filling every waking moment with a constant flurry of forced activity. At night, his dreams took over. No longer sheltered with his drugs and drinking, it was a trying ordeal just closing his eyes at night. Now, he didn't even have school to escape to. He'd begun to burn out, and knew that he couldn't keep it up. Something had to give.

But now, with Selithra, he felt something different. When he was with her, the icy-cold emptiness started to fade, and he could feel a subtle warmth suffusing his being. She was peace of mind. He was beginning to think that he needed her. He shook his head at himself, and muttered, "Fuckin' crazy, Ave." He arrived at the skybus station, and hopped a bus to the financial district. He knew he was going to have nightmares tonight. But he had to go anyway. _Ten years._

The skybus arrived in Banktown, as many locals called the financial district, half an hour later and he stepped off onto the metal docking platform. He didn't need to go far. Not far at all. His feet carried him to the place without thought. It was the mouth of a rather large alley. It was a clean alley, it being in Banktown, that ran between two gargantuan buildings that were part of one bank. He stepped to the edge of the alley, and put his arms out in front of him.

He looked down at the ground, and could almost see the faint blue trigger laser of the mine that had taken his arms crossing the mouth of the alley. He received some odd looks from the passers-by, but he ignored them, continuing to stare down at the ground. Then he looked at his arms. He spread the fingers of his right hand, and then clenched it into a tight fist. It felt real enough.

Letting his arms fall slowly to his side, he gave a bittersweet smile, and walked back to the skybus station, catching the first bus that went to the Eltrani district. He closed his eyes, and waited for the ride to be over. He needed his peace.

* * *

Selithra was just getting finished on the prep work for dinner, when she heard the doorchime. "Open." She called, and she heard the whoosh of the front door sliding open. "Avery?" She called from the kitchen. A moment later, she heard his voice from her apartment's spacious living room. 

"I'm here. I'm just gonna run in the 'fresher and catch a shower right quick." He called back.

"Okay...but don't be too long. Dinner should be ready in about thirty."

"Cool. Lookin' forward to it."

Selithra couldn't help but notice that his voice sounded a bit more...subdued than it usually did. She put it out of her mind as she went on with her preparations. After a few minutes, she was ready to begin cooking. She'd gone out of her way to find a food native to Juno IV, and had found a type of fish called ch'ala that was apparently a staple of people's diets in Celka City.

She'd managed to get several fresh, raw filet's synthesized at a fish market in West Eltrani. After that, she'd looked up recipes, and had found a wealth of them. After much deliberation, she'd decided to poach them in a fine Chandrilan pink bordine. Pink bordine was a lovely, light, sweet wine, and was exactly the type that was recommended for the recipe. Several herbs indigenous to the forests around Celka City also went in with the wine.

After settling the filet's into her poaching liquid, she set about boiling the odd-looking itshun roots she'd discovered in the same document with the ch'ala recipe. She continued in the kitchen, constantly monitoring the unfamiliar recipes to make sure nothing was going disastrously wrong. She was an excellent cook, and had a natural affinity for food chemistry, but new dishes were always hit and miss. And she'd never made this one before tonight. _In hindsight, perhaps I should have practiced this on Conrin once. Oh well...he'll appreciate it anyway._ She knew she was right. Avery _was_ a little rough around the edges, and had almost no culture to speak of.

He knew nothing about fine art, fine music, or fine cuisine, and fashion was the last thing on his mind. But unlike any other man she'd been with, he never failed to show his appreciation for her. She giggled to herself as she remembered him thanking her for going out with him for nearly the first month. Her smile turned to a frown as she remembered their first date. He hadn't spoken a word about the war, or the talk they'd had on that walkway, since that night. Something _was_ bothering him tonight. She'd heard it in his voice when he'd come in the apartment. And she had a feeling she knew what it was about.

She was shaken from her thoughts by the sound of a voice from the kitchen entrance. "Hey sexy. What's cookin?" She smiled at Avery as he stepped into the kitchen clad in a green sweatsuit and white socks. He inhaled deeply through his nose, and a strange look came over his face. "That smells like..." he sniffed the air again. "Like Ch'ala Itslih."

Her smile turned to a grin, and she said, "That's because it is."

Avery stepped close to her and put his arms around her. "Where'd you find recipes for ch'ala? Hell, where'd you even find fresh ch'ala?"

She looked up at him, and said, "A girl's got to have her secrets." Laying her head on his chest, she breathed deeply of his freshly-washed scent, comforted by his presence. "I actually just thought that you might miss the food from your home planet. And you told me that the only time you get to eat it homemade is when you visit your mother on Corellia. So I just thought it would be nice for you if you could have it here too." She smiled contentedly as he planted a kiss on her head.

"Thank you baby."

"You're welcome. Now, you should let go of me so I can check on our dinner." She leaned up and gave him a quick kiss, before turning to her stove. The itshun roots were tender when she checked, so she drained them and then replaced them in the pot they'd been cooking in. She reduced the heat, and dropped a large piece of double creamed nerf butter into the pot. After adding a bit of cream, she began mashing them. When she was finished, she salted them lightly and set them aside. After that, she checked on the fish. _Perfect._ She thought to herself.

Turning the stove off, she took two plates from the cupboard above the dishwasher. She heaped a large pile of mashed itshun onto Avery's plate, and then placed two filet's of ch'ala next to it. Next, she spooned a healthy serving of the poaching liquid over the top of the fish. Handing him his plate, she said, "There you go. Enjoy."

As she served herself, she watched him surreptitiously out of the corner of her eye. He was the only man she'd dated that didn't wait for her to sit down before eating. She watched as he took his food into the dining room and sat down at the table. He cut off a piece of sauce-drenched ch'ala and placed it in his mouth, chewing slowly. She gave a silent shout for joy when his eyes closed and a smile spread on his face. She'd gotten it right. She took her plate into the dining room and sat across the small table from him. "So, how is it?"

He beamed at her, and said, "This is incredible baby. This is better than my mother's...don't ever tell her I said that."

Selithra took a bit of itshun, and said, "I'd have to meet her to tell her." She put a piece of the fish in her mouth, and had to admit, it was incredibly tasty. She'd outdone herself.

Avery swallowed a mouthful of itshun, and said, "I'm sure you'll meet her eventually." He took another bite of his fish, blissfully ignorant of the hopeful look his girlfriend was giving him.

Selithra, for her part, couldn't believe what she'd just heard. She wasn't sure she'd heard it at all. "What was that Avery?"

"I said, I'm sure you'll meet her eventually."

"Oh." She didn't respond further, instead taking another bite of fish to cover her growing grin. After she swallowed it, she said, "So what was the matter when you came in?"

Avery stopped eating for a moment, and then resumed. He tried to be smooth about the hitch, but he knew she'd caught it. He shrugged as he took a bite, and said, "Nothing."

"Avery..."

"I said it's nothing, okay?" He didn't snap, but his voice was firm, brooking no argument. He didn't want to talk about it.

"Okay." Selithra said. "I just...I don't want you to feel like you can't talk to me. I care about you a lot. I want you to be able to tell me anything." Her voice was soft, plaintive.

Avery took a few more bites in silence, and then looked her in the eye. "Let's finish dinner, then go sit down in the living room with something to drink. I'll tell you then."

Selithra felt a thrill rush through her at the sudden idea that he was beginning to trust her. She could feel a relationship breakthrough coming up, as long as she didn't push too hard. Smiling minutely, she continued eating, enjoying the rest of her meal with Avery's silent presence in the room. When they'd finished, she went into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of the leftover pink bordine, and Avery a glass of his preferred Corellian whiskey on the rocks. Walking into the living room, she sat down next to Avery on her large couch and handed him his drink.

Avery took a slow drink of his whiskey, then turned to her and said softly, "My squad was working it's way across a walkway near the Cor-Fi buildings, over in Banktown. We had one guy down already, and he'd been medlifted back to the hospital ships up in space. I was...third in line, Magic was right in front of me. A turbolaser blast hit the walkway, and blew the shit out of the part we were walking over. Me and Magic got blown clear, over to the walkway at the entrance floors of the Cor-Fi buildings." Avery took another drink of his whiskey, and a frown formed on his face. Selithra's eyes were already huge, just the beginning of the story being more than she could imagine.

Avery continued with his story, saying, "We were pretty badly banged up, and Magic's left arm was broken pretty good. We almost immediately started taking fire from some stormtroopers coming out of the western Cor-Fi, so we started hoofing it towards the east.

"We got to the mouth of this alley, and I got hit in the leg. I stumbled, and Magic got past me." He closed his eyes, and leaned his head back on the couch. "I just remember looking down, and seeing this blue line about eight inches above the ground. It was so pale in the daylight that you could barely spot it. He was about to run right through it, and I just...jumped. I got my hands on his back and shoved him as hard as I could. The next thing I know, I'm lying half on, half off the walkway, and I can feel blood covering my face and chest." He sighed, and opened his eyes, but still didn't look at her.

"I knew I was hurt pretty bad, but it didn't occur to me that it was that bad. I just couldn't even tell that they were gone. It wasn't until I felt Magic dragging me back up on the walkway that I looked down, and they were just..." He looked down at his hands, and whispered hoarsely, "They were just gone."

Selithra looked at Avery, seeing the sadness on his face. Taking his hands gently in hers, she lifted each one to her lips and kissed them. " You saved your friend's life. You are a good man, Avery Azen. A very good man." She kept his hands in hers, and leaned forward slowly, her lips brushing his ever so slightly. Slowly, she increased the pressure, and felt him responding in kind.

His hands left hers and she felt his arms encircle her, drawing her closer. She didn't resist, allowing him to pull her into his warm embrace. She deepened their kiss, and her hands began to play about his chest, arms and shoulders. She marveled at the feel of his hard, sculpted muscles beneath her hands, and had the sudden desire to feel his skin as well.

Avery obediently raised his arms as she drew his shirt over his head. She stopped and stared at him, and then her fingers began tracing the myriad scars that she found on his well-muscled torso. Leaning forward slowly, she kissed an old shrapnel wound on his left shoulder, and then moved to a blaster wound below his right pectoral. Avery shuddered, and leaned back, his body relaxing under her gentle ministrations.

As much as he wanted to get to it, he couldn't deny that what she was doing felt good. It was as if every time she kissed an old war wound, she kissed away some of the lingering pain that had been clouding his life since the end of the war. He allowed her to continue, feeling the strain of recalling his most difficult memory easing. Eventually, the memories of the war faded from his thoughts completely, replaced by a kind of euphoria he'd never known existed.

* * *

Selithra awakened suddenly, with the feeling that something was wrong. She sat up in her bed, and looked around her room, trying to find the source of her discontent. After a moment, she realized that she was alone. _No...not alone._ She looked to her left, and smiled at the dark-skinned man sleeping peacefully there. She reached out and gently ran her fingers through his short, wiry hair. Selithra was about to lie back down and close her eyes, when she noticed Avery's expression shifting. Slowly, the peaceful smile on his face turned to a frown. He rolled slowly onto his left side, and he began to curl into the fetal position. 

Selithra watched with mounting concern, and a growing sense of unease, as Avery began to shake. He emitted a soft whimpering sound, and then she heard him whisper, "There's too much blood." His voice was barely audible, but it's agonized tone sent chills running down her spine. The shaking increased, and he began muttering, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." over and over. Selithra had seen enough. Reaching out to him, she placed her hand on Avery's exposed shoulder.

She was startled when he nearly flew off the bed, landing on the floor in a crouch, his hand going for an imaginary blaster. Seeming to realize he was unarmed, he backed himself up against the great bay windows that took up one wall of her bedroom, and led to a large balcony. The cold of the glass seemed to startle him, and he froze. "Avery? Avery, what's wrong?"

His voice panicked, and his eyes still darting wildly about the room, he gasped, "Who's there? Kreth, is that you? Has? Magic?"

Selithra realized that Avery was completely disoriented. "Avery, you're home...you're home miska." She slid off the bed and slowly approached him.

He seemed to take notice of her for the first time, and a look of confusion passed over his face. He looked around the room again, and then down at his hands. Looking back up at her, he said, "Selithra?" His voice was tiny, almost frightened, and she nearly started crying from it. She reached him, and put her arms around him.

"I'm here. You're with me, Avery. You're safe." She felt his arms go around her as well, and his body began to relax. "Come on soldier." She whispered to him. "Let's get you back in bed." She gently led him to the bed, and he sat down heavily, his head coming to rest in his hands. Selithra scooted around behind him and ran her hands up his back. When they arrived at his shoulders, she began to knead the tense muscles there, slowly working the knots out. "You okay?"

He nodded slowly, and said, "I think so." Taking a deep shuddering breath, he looked over his shoulder at her, and said, "I'm sorry baby."

Selithra shushed him and turned his head back around, before going back to work on his shoulders. "Nonsense. You have nothing to be sorry for." She leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on the nape of his neck. "Now just relax and let me work, okay?"

"Okay." He sat obediently still while she firmly massaged the hardened cables of muscle that were his shoulders. After almost fifteen minutes, she finally stopped. He sighed happily, his shoulders feeling looser than they had in years. "Thank you." He lied down, resting his head on the pillow, and pulled the covers up.

Selithra smiled at him, one of her fangs poking out from beneath her top lip. She stretched out facing Avery, and snuggled up to him under the covers. "You're welcome." She kissed him gently, allowing her lips to linger on his for a few blissful moments. When they parted, she sleepily said, "I'll keep the bad dreams away, miska, I promise."

Avery blinked lazily, and said, "What does that mean?"

"What?"

"Miska. That's the second time you called me that. What does it mean?"

Selithra's eyes drifted shut, and just before she slipped away into dreamland, she murmured, "Beloved."

Avery stared at the now sleeping woman in front of him, a look of bewilderment and wonder on his face. Slowly, a smile began to form. He kissed her on the forehead, and then closed his eyes. "I love you too." For the first time in his life, Avery Azen felt the beginnings of true contentment seeping into his soul.

He knew there would be more nightmares, that he would fight more battles in his sleep, but it wasn't such a frightening thought as it had been the night before. He wouldn't have to lie alone in the dark anymore, begging some long silent deity to take away his pain. Looking at Selithra, he knew instinctively that she wouldn't run away from him. A feeling of peace and warmth surged through him, as he realized that his war was finally over. His angel would protect him.


	21. Soldier 16

There are two errors that I have made in the writing of this story that have bothered me since I discovered them partway through the writing of this chapter. The first, and to me the most glaring, is the model of blaster rifle that was standard issue for both Imperial and Alliance infantry during the Galactic Civil War. I have erroneously labeled these weapons as the Blastech E-33 Blaster Rifle, when in fact it is an E-11.

The second error would be the use of Nubian as the adjective form of Naboo. This, I discovered recently on the all-knowing wikipedia, is incorrect. Nubian actually refers to the planet Nubia. That's a tough one to swallow, as I'd never have expected a Star Wars world to be named after an ancient African Empire (The Nubian Empire), but there you have it folks. Nabooan is the proper adjective form, and is what will appear in the story from now on. If I had more time and energy, I would go back and correct all the little fuck-ups of this nature, but I've got two little man cubs to raise, so I really don't. At some point, on some later date, I might re-edit the chapters and update them on the site.

Now, without any further ado, on with Le Story.

* * *

Korwin sat across from Laina, his expression neutral, waiting for her to begin. He watched her for signs that she was still upset over yesterday's story. He didn't understand why that story bothered people so much. It was more than thirty years in the past, and it certainly had never bothered him. He wouldn't make the same choice now, but Dankin had still gotten what he'd deserved. He licked his lips, and ran a hand over his cornrows, when she finally looked up.

"Mr. Nalan, I apologize. I was going over some of yesterday's notes. I didn't really have much time to look at them last night." She smiled tiredly at him.

"No worries. I'm ready whenever you are." He smiled back, and folded his hands in his lap.

"Well then, why don't we start with what happened after getting out of the brig."

"Alright then. I was in the brig for about...a week and half. Ended up spending my eighteenth birthday in there. I was in a cell with Avery and that Xanas Farrayn III kid. I guess, while we were in there, we decided he was okay. To be honest, me and Ave thought he was kind of a pussy at first, really." He started to chuckle, then caught himself, and said, "Pardon my language."

Laina waved his apology off and said, "As I said, uncut and uncensored. Please continue."

Korwin nodded, and said, "Anyway, he was a rich kid, you know? I mean, I guess I shouldn't have thought of him as a kid, because he was a few years older than I was, but I mean...really, anyone with less combat experience than me, and that was the majority of the troops on Tatooine, I thought of as a kid. They didn't get it yet, hadn't grown up. And that's how we still thought of him, even after he'd survived the Battle of the Xelric Draw, and the defense of Mos Espa."

"So you were surprised by his intervention then?" Laina asked.

"Oh yeah. I mean, he was infantry, you know? And a rich kid at that, soft and pampered his whole life. So I was surprised. But we got to know him in the brig, and Avery and I decided that he was a good kid. He helped us out, helped me out, really, because he was close to Jenna. I guess he thought that whole thing was about her. Everyone kind of got that impression."

"It wasn't then?" Laina asked, her eyebrow raised.

"Hell no! It was about Dankin making me look like a coward in front of everyone. He didn't understand how things worked where I was from. Other than Avery, not many people there had grown up like that. So it never occurred to them that him "staring me down" wouldn't be the end of it. They figured, once I looked away, that was it. But that's not how things worked. I just needed to build up a good head of steam first. I really don't think that anyone other than my guys thought I had the balls to hit him after that. And half of my guys still probably thought I was going to shoot him." He shook his head. "Anyways, I got out of the brig shortly after a little visit from Jenna. She came to see Danna, really, but no one else came to see us. All my friends were in there with me."

He took a sip of his water, and said, "The day after we got out, I was called into Borlin's tent."

* * *

"Godsdammit Nalan, you stupid sith-loving cock jockey! What the fuck is wrong with you! What idiotic fucking thought was swimming around in that cornrowed cesspool you call a head, that you thought it would be o-fucking-kay to _PISTOL WHIP_ a fucking platoon Sergeant! What the fuck were you thinking!" Borlin thundered at Korwin, gobs of spittle flying from his lips, which were drawn tightly over his teeth in such a feral snarl of absolute rage that they were as white as his teeth. The rest of his face, by contrast, was quite a lovely shade of purple, which Korwin thought went nicely with the silvery tones in the Captain's sun-bleached hair. "You want me to tell you what! You weren't thinking, you fucking moron! Isn't that the fucking problem I've had with your insubordinate ass since you were shat into my Company by the assholes at High Command!"

Korwin thought of speaking in his defense, but he really was at a loss as to how he could explain why he'd done what he'd done. He was given that opportunity a moment later, when Borlin screamed, "Are you even fucking listening to me, you worthless piece of bantha dung! Answer me! What the fuck were you thinking!"

Deciding that it wouldn't be prudent to point out that Borlin had apparently answered his own question mere seconds ago, Korwin instead opted for the diplomatic approach. "Sir...I apologize for the trouble I caused you with this. I know I fucked up."

"Fucked up?" Borlin whispered, bringing his face close enough to Korwin's to kiss him. "Fucked...up?" Borlin went to his desk, and fell into his chair. "Well, thank the force that's all that happened. I mean, you fuck up all the time, and things are still just great, right?" His face took on a pinched look, as if the thought of what he was about to say was giving him indigestion. "I want you to know that Tatooine High Command has looked into the incident. There has been talk of a court-martial."

Borlinsighed deeply, and closed his eyes. He began to rub the bride of his nose, and then his voice took on a somewhat more normal tone. "However...because of the unreasonably high body-count your _reconnaissance_ squad has racked up, and because of the number of Alderaani Mercy Crosses you've received combined with the medals you got in that fucking debacle with the sandpeople, they've opted to demote you instead. I'll need your stripes by the end of the day."

Korwin wasn't particularly surprised at the demotion. He was surprised that he was getting off with a figurative "slap on the wrist". "You're shittin' me, right? That's it? I'm demoted?"

Borlin nodded wearily, and repeated, "That's it. You're demoted."

"What about Dankin?"

"He'll be laid up a while on the medship. You smashed his nose...that needed surgery. Several of them. You broke his jaw pretty badly on the right side, and opened a gash on his chin that needed stitches in the mid triple digits." His eyes bored in Korwin as he said, "You also fractured his left eye socket in three places and popped the eye about halfway out. They said the only thing that kept it from coming out completely was the swelling." A sardonic chuckle escaped him, and he said, "You know Nalan, when you set your mind to something, you really go all out. You never do anything half-assed do you?"

Korwin pursed his lips, and blew out a breath he'd been holding since Borlin had started listing Dankin's injuries. "I really fucked him up bad, didn't I?"

"You were pretty fucked up yourself weren't you. I heard you were doing shots of lavawater." He sniffed, and leaned back in his chair, putting his feet up on his desk. "That's some potent shit. Known to severely impair judgement. I'd suggest you lay off the alcohol for a while."

"Yeah, I uh...might have had a few drinks before I...hit him." Korwin shrugged. He honestly didn't feel that bad about it. The guy had it coming. Of course, he wasn't about to say that to the Captain. "So uh, that can't be the only reason I'm not getting charged."

"No...it's not. It seems that not many people like the good Sergeant. Not many were willing to speak on his behalf. Of course, in the end, what it really boils down to is one side's word against the other. And none of the dancer's, or employee's of the cantina were willing to say anything one way or the other. So you dodged a blaster bolt on this one. You should feel blessed; you haven't had much luck in that department since you got here."

Korwin grimaced, the many incidents in which he'd been wounded flashing through his mind. And he had to admit, there were a lot of them. "I suppose I haven't, have I?"

"You know, it's funny really. Of all the members of the rebel alliance who haven't seen combat before this war, you have the most crosses. Really. It's in your records now. So when this war is all done and over, if you leave no other legacy behind, at least you'll be remembered as the most wounded man in the galaxy. That's a story to tell the grandkid's over the campfire."

Korwin stared at his CO for several long seconds, and then said, "Any other good news to share?"

Borlin nodded and stood up. "Actually yes. The Navy has gained control of enough of Tatooine's space to allow mail through. We can't send transmissions to your loved ones, so the mail will be paper."

Korwin's eyes were popping out of his head, and he said, "No shit? How does the system work. I mean, how are they gonna handle that logistically?"

Borlin marveled at the boy's ability to think strategically, and his seemingly contradictory habit of acting thoughtlessly. "I have no idea, and I don't care, so long as it works. My wife is on Naboo, and I haven't had a letter from her in...well, almost two years now. It'll be good to hear from her."

Korwin nodded slowly, and said, "I can send mail home, right? To Juno IV?"

"I'd imagine so."

"And Naboo too, huh?"

"Who do you know on Naboo?" Borlin found himself genuinely curious. He knew the kid had been there once, for a week of leave. He also knew what most soldiers did on furlough; got pussy, or got married.

"I met this girl there. You know...when I was on leave."

"Oh...what's her name?"

"Elise. She likes to be called Eli though." He smiled at the memory of that week in Theed.

"Well, if you care about her, you should write her."

"What should I write about? The war?"

Borlin shrugged. "I wrote to my wife about combat during the Clone Wars. She was the best outlet. She never said anything back in her letters, just told me how things were going, and how much she loved me, how much she missed me. She'd send holo's of the kids, things like that. It's what got me through combat."

Korwin was feeling a bit off-balance hearing Borlin talk like that. "You wrote to her about combat?"

"Yes. Not in every letter. Just when something really bad happened. I know a lot of guys that never mentioned anything about the combat in their letters home. I couldn't do that."

Korwin sighed, and said, "Well, I can't tell her about that shit."

Borlin stood up and walked to the entryway of his tent, leaning against a support pole. "I can respect that. I understand that too."

Korwin shook his head, and said, "No sir, you don't. I can't tell her about combat, because she doesn't know I'm fighting. I told her I was with the quartermaster's division, so she wouldn't worry."

Borlin turned around, and stared him straight in the eye. "Are you fucking kidding me?" When Korwin shook his head, he said, "Force Nalan, you really are a fuck up." He rubbed his eyes tiredly, and said, "This is the only piece of advice of this kind that I'll ever give you, so listen and listen well. Your first letter to her should be one of explanation and apology, and nothing else. Come clean, and do it now. Because if you get back to Naboo, if that's where you're planning on going after all this is over, and she see's a whole new set of scars that weren't there last time, she's gonna get mighty suspicious. And once you've slept together for a while, I promise you she'll know."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Korwin asked.

Borlin chuckled darkly, and said, "Oh no, I don't want to ruin it for you. You'll find that out when you get there."

"So you really think I should tell her."

"That's a pretty astoundingly large lie you told, Nalan. I'm surprised you have to ask."

Korwin stood up and saluted. "Permission to go snitch on myself sir." He couldn't have looked more miserable if he'd just taken a Tusken slug in the gut.

"Granted." Borlin stood and returned the salute. "Dismissed."

Korwin turned on his heel and walked out into the early morning light. Second sunset was just beginning, and he stood for a moment, admiring the odd, prismatic glow that Tatoo II cast across the horizon as it's light met that of Tatoo I. Sunset and sunrise on Tatooine was incredible, and was something he would carry with him for the rest of his life. _At least I'll take something beautiful away from all this shit._ He thought to himself.

Tearing his gaze from the stunning site, he started off for the K Company camp. Walking through the great, sand-colored tent city, Korwin thought about how he was going to word the letter to the girl he loved. Borlin was right; he'd fucked up. But he still didn't see how fessing up was going to help his case. In his experience, in his world, getting charged was as good as getting a guilty verdict. Admitting you did it was tantamount to putting a blaster under you chin and pulling the trigger. For a moment, he considered talking to Avery about it. He was one of his oldest, closest, and most trusted friends. They'd been through hell together before ever they'd come to this war, and they'd go through more before it was over. Yeah, that's what he'd do.

* * *

"For real, Magicman..." Avery said in a tight voice as he held in a lungful of rhondis smoke. "I don't know why you gettin' all soft and shit over this girl. I mean, c'mon gangsta, this just one female. They's trillions 'n' shit all over the galaxy." With each word, a tiny puff of smoke exited his mouth and nostrils, until finally, he slowly blew out the breath. Passing the rhondis stick to Korwin, he said, "I mean, really...you're my brother man...you think I'd steer you wrong?"

Korwin took a long, slow hit of the rhondis, feeling the pleasant high lift him up. "Ave, I'm serious man. I just wanna know. Should I tell her?" Korwin and Avery were sitting on

"Motherfucker, I'm serious too. I mean, look at this shit. You're freakin' out over this girl. Look at yourself. Why you so worried about her, when you got Kreth sleepin' on the cot right next to your's? I mean, she's fine as hell, and I'm a fuckin' _connoisseur. _Shit man, I'd be pouring honey on that ass _tonight_ if I wasn't so afraid of the bitch." Avery looked around, as if afraid she was nearby. "Anyway, you gotta understand what I'm sayin'." He sniffed loudly, hawked even louder, and then spat an enormous gob of phlegm on the ground. He took the rhondis stick back, holding the paper rolled buds with his index finger and thumb. "Man, you gotta be real. This girl lives on Naboo right?" Korwin nodded, still holding his hit in. "And she's a rich girl, from a good family and shit. Lives near the palace and all. And her name man...c'mon Magic. Elise Orlane? Be real man. That's a fuckin' rich-bitch, fuckin', high society name if I ever fuckin' heard one."

Korwin blew his hit out in a rush, and said, "Ave...man, I'm not asking whether I should be with her. I don't need your advice on that. And if you shit on her like that one more time, I'm gonna smack you in the fuckin' mouth." Korwin didn't particularly like making threats like that, primarily because Avery generally made him follow through.

"Bitch, I dare ya." Like so.

Korwin, who had been sitting peacefully on his cot, leaned toward's Avery, who was sitting on Kreth's cot, and slapped him hard across the mouth. Avery's face twisted in anger, and he shouted, "Motherfucker!" Korwin saw the burning rhondis stick suddenly come flying at his eye. He dodged quickly to the right, only to feel Avery's hard left hook connect solidly with his jaw. His head snapped to the side, but he shook of the effects and lunged at his old friend. Avery's eyes went wide, and he tried to scramble to his feet, swinging his fists wildly at Korwin.

Korwin felt a few solid blows connect on both sides of his face before he managed to get a hold of Avery. Lifting him up, he forced him backward, over Kreth's cot. Avery tripped, and his back hit the ground on the other side hard. He slammed a hard left into Korwin's face, even as Korwin drew back with his right and hammered Avery hard in the nose. There was a resounding crack as it broke, but if it affected Avery at all, he didn't show it. His left hand came up under Korwin's chin pushing him upright, and he punched him hard on the breastbone with his right, the second knuckle of his middle finger extended.

Korwin gasped at the sharp pain, and felt his lungs deflating. As he struggled for breath, he leaned back slightly, and began pounding his fists into Avery's face, Avery swinging just as wildly. Suddenly, he heard a shout, "Hey, what the fuck!" Kierse. Shit. "Help me separate em', don't just fuckin' watch!" Korwin drew his left fist back for another blow, and was disappointed to find himself being wrenched off of Avery by at least two pairs of arms. He struggled mightily, but wordlessly, and Avery hurried to his feet. Before anyone could grab him, he socked Korwin hard across the mouth.

Korwin grunted, as he felt a tooth come free from his gums. Blood began pooling in his mouth, and he spat it on the ground as Haslin and Urki, a near-human, restrained Avery.

"What the fuck was that!" Kierse shouted at them. "We just got out of the brig for this shit! Don't be pulling this shit now. Don't be assholes!" Korwin glared at him for a moment, then shifted his gaze back to Avery.

Staring hard at him, he said, "For real though man...should I tell her?" Avery gave him a strange look for a moment, and then began laughing uproariously, blood still running freely from his nose. Korwin started with a small chuckle, but that soon developed into a full-blown belly laugh.

Kierse shook his head in disgust, and said, "Well fuck you guys." Korwin and Avery found themselves suddenly free, and sat down side by side on Korwin's cot.

Korwin looked around on the ground, and said, "Hey, that smoke survive?"

Avery, still breathing hard from the fight and the laugh, said, "Yeah...hold up." He went behind Korwin's cot and picked up the now extinguished joint. Sitting down, he said, "We should maybe get this blood cleaned up before we spark this shit up again." Smirking at his friend, he said, "But now that you put it like that. If you're that serious about her that you're gonna break my fuckin' nose over it...then yeah, you should probably come clean about this shit." Sniffing loudly, he spat out a wad of bloody snot. "Dumbshit."

"Yeah, whatever, fuckin' knucklehead. Why don't you finish that by yourself. I got a letter to write."

"Can you write?"

Korwin was sorely tempted to start another fight, but decided that it really wasn't worth it in the end. "Man, fuck you."

* * *

Korwin sat on the low dune near the edge of base camp, staring at the letter in his hands. It was finally finished. He'd spent three hours, and several sheets of paper to get it right, but he was pretty sure he had it. Of course, there was a good chance that she would read the letter, pitch it in the trash and never speak to him again. Which, now that he thought about it, made more sense than anything else. _After all, she ain't even known me more than a week. This is the first contact I've had with her since then. And it's to tell her I fuckin' lied._ Korwin sighed and shook his head, before folding up the letter, putting it in the envelope he'd gotten for it, and standing up. He began walking slowly towards Borlin's tent, his mind going over the possible responses from Eli. If he received one at all.

Thinking on it, he realized that Avery was most likely right. It had been nearly a year since they'd seen each other, or talked to each other, and she probably thought he was dead or something. A girl like that, if she waited for his poor, low-class ass at all, was probably over him by now and running around with some equally classy, equally wealthy young Nabooan man. _Shit youngster...she probably wants someone older than me. Fuck, she should be finishing university soon, or somethin'. I ain't even finished high school._ With those thoughts on his mind, he stepped into Borlin's tent, and dropped the letter on his desk. "Explanation and apology sir, just like you said."

Borlin looked up from his datapad, and said, "Oh, good. By the way, I can't help but be curious...what city is your girl from?"

"Theed, why?"

Borlin shook his head. "Never mind. I don't really know anyone in Theed. I'm from Kaadara. It's a good ways away from Theed, on the ocean."

"Oh. Well, anyway, there it is. If there's nothing else sir?"

"Actually, there is something else. Just a moment." Borlin switched off his datapad and removed a small datacard from it. "Here, this just came down from the Battalion CP. It's your next operation. I want you to check that data carefully, and make note of the aerial recon holo's that are included."

"We've got _aerial_?" Korwin asked incredulously. "We finally got aerial?"

Borlin nodded his head, and said, "We do. Now, study up on that, brief your troops, and make your preparations."

Korwin snapped a salute, and said, "Yes sir!"

Borlin saluted back, and said, "Now get the hell outta here kid. I got work to do."

Korwin smiled, and turned to leave. Stepping into the bright sunlight, he broke into a trot on the way back to the tents. Each step sent a tiny jolt of pain through the hole in the left side of his mouth that a molar had occupied mere hours earlier, but it kept him alert. Arriving at the tent, he found Avery with a cold compress on his face. His nose had been realigned, and he'd gotten a bacta injection and anti-inflammatory's to keep the swelling down. Kierse and Kreth were sitting on Korwin's cot, and Avery was lying on Kreth's. When he stepped into the tent, Kreth looked up at him and said, "You know, you two are like a couple of big dumb animals...I swear, you are." She shook her head, and turned away.

Korwin said, "That's nice, but the big dumb animal is gonna have a briefing for you in a few hours, so be around. We've got an op coming up in a couple days." Groans went up around the room, and Korwin said, "Hey, we get this mission finished, ya'll can run into Mos Espa and cut loose for a night or two. Just make sure you're not drunk when it's time to roll again."

Avery said, "Shit man, I'm drunk right now. I'll be good by then."

Haslin, lying on his own cot, near the back of the tent, spoke up. "Just tell us when boss."

Korwin held up the datacard, and said, "Well, gimme a couple hours to study this. Briefing will be when I'm done, and we'll start planning the op and studying the..._aerial recon._"

Kreth's eyes lit up, and for a moment she looked like a little girl on her birthday, staring at an enormous chocolate cake. "We have aerial recon? Tell me you're not just teasing us."

Avery piped up and said, "Yeah, there better be a cumshot on this one."

Kreth silenced him with a scathing glare, and then turned back to Korwin and said, "Magic, if we've got aerial, we've got it made."

Korwin raised an eyebrow, and said, "You willing to bet your life on that?"

Korwin rubbed his eyes, trying to keep himself awake. He was on the last paragraph of the written briefing, having decided to go over the recon holo's with his squad. He'd been reading the same sentence for almost two minute's now, and wasn't any closer to comprehending the words it contained. But he pushed on anyway, knowing that he needed to get this work done tonight. He'd read reports on the various recon actions in the Jundland wastes for the last four weeks, including KIA reports, enemy body counts, enemy sightings (down to specific units and troop numbers, including weaponry and mobility), and enemy fortifications that were visible. The most important report, and the one that Korwin was currently finishing, detailed his squad's mission of exploring the cavern that Tatooine High Command believed led into one of the Imperial Navy's underground airbases.

A recon squad from 1st Battalion, C Company had discovered the cave initially, and had used it to shelter in during the day. During the last watch shift, one of them had done a standard check for ion emissions and had discovered trace emissions coming from the back of the cave. This led to a tunnel which opened into a small cavern that apparently had another tunnel leading out the left side of it. They'd reported the intel to their Battalion CP and had been ordered to extract as a precaution. They'd been ambushed by a twelve man squad of Imperial Commando's during extraction, and had taken two KIA's.

Korwin wasn't enamored with the idea of going in there, and he had a bad feeling about it, but they'd called his number. Besides, it wasn't like he had a choice. He finished the briefing and set down his datapad. His squadmates were lounging about the tent, as they'd been ordered, and were waiting for him to brief them. He sat up, and said, "Okay, here's what's up. A couple weeks ago, some guys from 1BC recon found a cave that was leaking ion emissions. They explored further and found a cavern with a tunnel leading into and out of it. No further exploration has been made of the cavern. Tatooine High Command has good reason to believe that this will lead us to one of the Imp's hidden airbases in the wastes."

He took a deep breath, and continued on, knowing he had their full attention. "We're going in the night after tomorrow night. We'll be dropped via black box roughly fifty miles away from base camp, into a basin in the wastes. From there, we'll make our way to the cave, a couple miles the north of our drop point. We'll be exploring as far as we can. We'll be gone for a total of five days if all goes as planned, so pack right." Looking at his demolitions man, he said, "Kierse, bring some mild explosives; we might be doing some sabotage work if the opportunity presents itself. Avery, Kreth will work with you on what to bring along. Haslin, forget your sporting blaster, grab yourself an E-11. There won't be many opportunities for sniping."

Picking up his datapad, he said, "I've got some aerial recon holo's of the LZ and the canyon complex that the cave is in. I need to make you all aware that this is not going to be a cake mission. The squad that found this cave was hit by a large squad of Imp Commando's. Two of them went home in cryocoffins." He paused to let that sink in. He knew it wasn't really necessary, but it was important to him to remind them of the ultimate price that they would pay if they weren't on their toes.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. We'll be going over this stuff for a while, and we'll be having dress rehearsal all afternoon tomorrow. Avery, this is your first real recon mission, so it's time to get your feet wet. You get through this, you'll officially be a larry."

Avery gave him a thumbs up, his cold compress still on his nose. "Gravy." He mumbled.

"Alright, let's get to it." His squad gathered around his cot, and they began pouring over the recon holo's. Korwin gave them detailed briefings and action reports, pointing out where each encounter and sighting had taken place. By the time they were done, five hours had gone by, and they were ready to rest. Korwin sank onto his cot and pulled his sheets up. His blinked sleepily, and said, "Remember. Up at 0500 to start planning." His only response was a light snore from Kreth. Deciding that she had the right idea, Korwin closed his eyes and went to sleep.

* * *

"Mission planning went the same as it always did. Kreth and I worked over everything and came up with a route, codes for infantry support, and artillery support, now that we'd gotten some big turbo's set up. Once everything was ready, we went through our dress rehearsal's and then went through it all again the next day before gearing up for the mission that night."

Laina nodded and recorded the information, then looked up and said, "And did that mission go as planned?"

Korwin smirked wryly, and said, "They never do."

* * *

Korwin slid off the box, and looked around at the surrounding basin. Boulders and chunks of rock were strewn all across the enormous depression, and tall red-rock cliffs rose in an irregular ovoid wall around it. Two narrow canyons led out of the basin, and as the black box lifted off, he waved Kreth towards the one on the right. The recon squad crept silently over the broken basin floor, weaving around boulders and stepping lightly on the largely uneven ground.

Korwin continually swept their surroundings with his eyes, looking for any sign of movement. Luckly, they'd encountered nothing by the time they entered the canyon a half mile north of the LZ. They made their way slowly but steadily up the canyon, and Korwin was surprised that they'd yet to encounter any Imperial troops. It wasn't a good sign, and he began feeling a familiar tingle in his gut. After some two hours of slow moving, they came to the bend that the cave was located in. Korwin nearly ran into Kreth, she stopped so suddenly.

She pointed ahead of her, and Korwin's eyes widened as he saw four Commando's standing in the mouth of the cave. Staying still, he slowly looked back at Kierse and apprised him of the situation using hand signals. Kierse nodded and pulled his comm out. Keying it, he very quietly relayed the information to Battalion CP. A moment later, he closed his eyes and shook his head. Looking at Korwin, he signalled for an attack. Korwin looked at each of his squad members, as if to ask, 'are you sure you guy's are down for this?'. He recieved nods and shrugs all around. He cursed internally at the willingness of his troops to do stupid things. They were as bad as he was. Pulling a frag grenade from his harness, he primed it and lobbed it at the Imps.

A moment later, the ground shook, and an ear-splitting explosion echoed through the canyon. The four Imps were down, and none were moving. Aiming his blaster at the cave mouth, Korwin began advancing slowly, his squad behind him. When the first Imp ran out, he was dead before he could even see his aggressors. The next three were gunned down as well, but when the flow of Imps didn't stop, Korwin realized they'd fucked up...really fucked up. "Regroup and retreat!" He shouted to his troops, who were engaged in a heavy firefight with the suddenly numerous enemy contacts.

An organized retreat was out of the question; it'd simply be too slow. They'd be overrun in minutes. Throwing caution to the wind, Korwin turned and sprinted down the canyon, shouting, "RUN, DAMMIT, RUN!" If anything could be said about Korwin's squad, it was that they were fast. Fear made them faster. Korwin snatched his comm unit and began yelling, "3b Larry K, Trailblazer Mark 1!" Seconds later, heavy turbolaser bolts began slamming into the canyon behind them on a predetermined firing coordinate. The recon squad quickly outdistanced the beleaguered Imp's, and Korwin silently thanked the artillery gods for the moment of respite. The two hour crawl and sneak that had gotten them to the cave, turned into a ten minute mad dash back to the basin.

As they broke out of the canyon, Kierse was screaming into his comm for extraction. Korwin could hear Imps running up the canyon behind them. Apparently, the artillery hadn't been as thorough as he'd hoped. Korwin shouted, "How long?"

Kierse shouted back, "Ten minutes!"

"Fuck...find cover near the LZ! Give up ground slow, and make em' fuckin' pay for it!" Korwin dashed towards the LZ and found cover behind a large boulder. His squadmates got cover in the area surrounding, and he peeked around the boulder watching for the Imp's. He whispered over the comm, "Don't fire until I do." After nearly five minutes, he saw the first stormtroopers, led by Commando's, wending their way through the boulders in the basin. He raised his rifle, looking for someone important to kill. After a moment, he caught sight of a Captain's shoulderpad, and grinned.

Taking aim on the troops torso, he inhaled deeply. Letting the breath out halfway, he gently squeezed the trigger, sending a burst of red death lancing towards the Imp officer's chest. He dropped dead, and a moment later, his troops began firing on the Imp's. A grenade exploded near the dead officer, killing several more, but they just kept coming. Another group of troopers charged through the cloud of smoke and dust that the grenade's explosion had created, heading straight for Korwin's position. He tossed a plasma grenade out, roughly twenty feet in front of them, and then began firing. He dropped two before the grenade exploded in their midst, killing the rest.

Korwin shouted, "Fall back, fall back!" An Imp plasma grenade came flying in and rolled to a stop next to him. He shouted, "Fuck!" and kicked the offending explosive back the way it had come. It exploded in the faces of three onrushing Commando's, shattering their frontal armor and cooking them inside it. Korwin turned and ran to another boulder some thirty feet behind the first one, then turned and continued firing. A moment later, he heard Kreth shouting,

"Azen, I'm hit!" He spared a look, and saw Kreth lying on the ground holding her leg.

She was being fired upon by several Imps, and Korwin shouted, "Cover her!" He began laying fire on the Imp's that were shooting at Kreth, and Kierse and Haslin followed suit. Through the sheets of hot energy, Korwin saw Avery running the Gauntlet, swerving every which way to get to Kreth. Korwin winced as he saw a bolt strike Avery in the shoulder, but was amazed when his old friend continued running.

He dropped to the ground by Kreth and grabbed her underneath the arms. He was shouting something to her as he lifted her upper body and began dragging her back to cover. He dragged her behind Korwin's boulder, and Korwin looked down at his medic's shoulder for a moment. There was a gaping hole through it, the edges singed and burnt, and Korwin could smell the cooked flesh from both Avery's and Kreth's wounds. He looked back to the Imps and continued laying down fire, dropping several more.

His blaster pak ran empty, and he dropped behind the boulder and flipped it over, jamming the fresh one in. Priming it, he leaned out and began firing again. A moment later, he heard Avery shout, "DONE!" He heard the welcome sound of Avery's weapon resuming fire, and then nearly cried for joy when he heard the sound of a regular box rolling in. Another followed it, and both began circling the basin, the door gunner's pouring large green bolts of energy into the massed Imperial troops. Whilst the first one continued suppressing the enemy, the second made a hard landing in the LZ.

Korwin shouted, "Avery, get Kreth! Recon up, our ride is here!" He dashed towards the box, his comrades on his heels, and he stopped by the door and provided cover fire as Kierse jumped in. Haslin dropped to one knee next to the doorway and began firing as well, as Avery charged up with Kreth hobbling along beside him. Avery helped Kreth into the box, then jumped in. Haslin was next, and then Korwin. He shouted, "GO, GO, GO!"

The door gunner opened up on the Imp's, as they fired at the fleeing recon troops. Korwin held on tight as the box lurched skyward and then banked violently to the south. The angle of ascent was so steep that Korwin could look left from his perch at the edge of the door and see the Imp's on the ground below getting tinier and tinier. A moment later, the box leveled off, and the box providing fire support broke off to the south as well. Korwin looked over at Kreth, and shouted, "How you doin' Kreth?"

She gave him the thumbs up, and smiled sleepily through the painkillers Avery had injected her with. He looked over at Avery, and saw him silently bandaging his own wound. He'd make sure to make a report of Avery's actions during the retreat. He deserved some recognition for that. As the box turned slowly and headed towards home, Korwin blew out a long, hard breath. That had been a close one. Eli would be worried about him.

"That's what you were thinking about?"

Korwin shrugged and said, "Well, yeah. I mean, no one died, we were okay. I thought about her a lot, and I realized that suddenly, you know, she know's I'm doing this shit. I had explained my real job to her, what it was I did. I'd detailed my wounds, and told her about some of my friends. And I'd apologized. But now she knew that this was what was going on. And if she didn't dump me outright, you know, I knew she'd worry. And she did, of course."

Laina nodded. "Of course. Well, we've had quite a long morning session, so why don't we just call it a day?"

Korwin smiled genially, and said, "Fine by me. You all have a lovely day." He stood and left the room amidst a chorus of similar farewells.

Laina shut down her datapad, and thought over the story so far. If she was right, this was the lead up to the big Rebel assault on the Imperial airbases. The final battle that pushed the Imp's off Tatooine for good. Tomorrow would be an interesting day.

* * *

Well, there it is finally. Chapter 16. Hopefully it's up to snuff. If any of you get a wild hair after you read this and decide to review, the button is just below this test. Yes, right there...that one. All constructive criticism is accepted. Flames will be ignored in a way that only a man who's been married can ignore something. Thanks for reading this far.


	22. Soldier 17

I'd like to once again express my appreciation to those who have taken the time to review my story. In particular, I'd like to thank Constantine IX, who has provided very useful reviews that always invariably remind me of some aspect of the story that is being neglected. So thank you, and I hope you continue to read and enjoy

On with the story.

* * *

Korwin sat down in his chair, waiting for Laina to begin the day's interview. He didn't have long to wait, as she looked up a moment after he sat down. Smiling at him, she said, "Well, I'm ready if you are." Her tone was pleasant, and she seemed to be in quite the good mood.

Korwin remarked on this. "Look at you, young lady. You're positively glowing today." He smiled charmingly, and cocked his head to the right.

Laina's vibrant violet skin blushed a deeper purple, and she looked quickly down at her datapad. "Thank you." She said, her voice soft, almost shy sounding. Looking back up, she said, "My boyfriend proposed last night."

Korwin grinned happily, obviously taking pleasure in the news. "That's wonderful!" He exclaimed boisterously. "Congratulations. I'll have to take you and your fiancé out for a celebratory drink when you have the time."

Laina smiled brilliantly, and said, "Thank you. That's very sweet of you." Her tone was sincere, and she continued on, saying, "Achrys would really like you. He's an amateur historian. That's actually how I ended up doing these interviews. When he found out that Trexcomm Media Intergalactic was doing this, he told me I should ask my boss for the job."

"Well, you should tell Achrys 'thank you' for me."

"I'll do that. Perhaps when the interviews are concluded, we can all get together. Like I said, Achrys would very much love that. He'd be honored to meet a veteran like you." Laina was actually excited at the thought. Although he made his living as a speeder mechanic, and had no formal higher education, Achrys was a very well educated man. He was well read, and was particularly interested in military history. Shaking herself out of her musings, Laina said, "Well, why don't we get started."

Korwin nodded. "Fair enough." He took a sip of water, and then said, "After the clusterfuck in the canyon, we didn't have much running. We were running a little low on bacta, so Kreth's recovery from her blaster wound took longer than usual. Avery wouldn't even have gotten a mercy cross for that mission, if not for me forcing him to go to the aid station to get his wound checked out properly." Taking another small sip of water, he set the glass down on the table next to his chair, and said, "During that downtime, Haslin and I were summoned by Captain Borlin and he made us an offer we couldn't refuse."

* * *

"So it's another one of those then, is it?" Korwin asked, his tone flat.

Borlin nodded his head. "Yes it is. The mission is high priority and highly classified. I'm sure you already have some idea as to what it involves."

Korwin looked at his sniper, and Haslin looked back and grinned boyishly. Korwin knew that Borlin wanted Haslin to shoot somebody important. That much was obvious. Otherwise he wouldn't have called in just the two of them. What he couldn't figure out was what _he_ was doing here. "Sir, if it's a sniping job, why am I here?"

"You'll find that out when you accept the mission."

Haslin raised an eyebrow. "When we accept, sir? Don't you mean if?"

Borlin smiled smugly, and played his trump card. "How would you boys like a week's leave, out of system?"

Korwin said, "I'm in."

Haslin merely nodded his agreement. Borlin rubbed his hands together in satisfaction, then sat down behind his desk. "Glad you're both on the same page. Be in the Battalion CP tonight at 1800 hours for your briefing."

Haslin looked at his CO oddly, and said, "We don't even get a hint?"

Borlin shook his head. "Not a word about this to anyone. You boy's understand me? Not a word."

Korwin and Haslin chorused, "Yes sir!"

"Good. Dismissed. Remember; Battalion CP at 1800. Have a good day gentlemen." The two young soldiers saluted, and Borlin returned the salute.

As Korwin and Haslin walked back towards their tent, Haslin turned to Korwin and said, "I'm going home. You?"

"Naboo." Korwin replied. He'd received a letter from Eli two days previous. She'd obviously written the letter in stages, judging by the changes in her handwriting. In the first, she'd been railing at him for lying to her, and for thinking she wouldn't worry anyway. In the next, she'd gone on about how much she missed him, and how she couldn't wait for the war to be over so she could see him again. In the next, she was cross and stern, lecturing him on the importance of honesty. "I need to go see Eli."

Haslin glanced at his squad leader and said, "How come you don't go home? You never talk about it."

Korwin shrugged. "I talked about it once. Before you were here." He realized that Haslin didn't know anything about his home other than the name. "I can't go home, Has. I killed a cop."

"Oh." Haslin seemed to take a moment to absorb the information. "Damn boss. That's some heavy shit."

"Yeah, well...we all make mistakes, right?" Korwin said, a hint of sarcasm creeping into his voice.

Haslin shrugged, and kicked a small rock that was sitting on top of the sand, "Not my place to say. Anyway, you've done good by us." He pulled a pack of deathsticks out and offered one to Korwin, who took it gratefully. "You ever gonna see your family again?"

Korwin lit his deathstick and took a drag. "I hope so. I have my mother, and a little brother and sister back home. I'm hoping that when this is all over, I'll have enough backpay built up to get them to Naboo with me."

Haslin nodded his head sympathetically, and said, "Well, maybe I can help you out."

Korwin stopped in his tracks and stared at his friend. "You'd do that?"

Haslin shrugged, "Sure, why not? It's not like I need a shitload of money. My family already has a ranch on Dantooine, and we make plenty of money off that. I'm set when I go home."

Korwin was at a loss for words. He tried to think of something suitable to say for the generosity his squad sniper was displaying, but finally settled for clapping him on the shoulder and saying, "Thanks Has."

Haslin shrugged the thanks off, and said, "We're recon, boss. We never leave a man behind." He turned away from Korwin and continued on towards their tent.

Korwin stood there for a moment longer, contemplating what his sniper had said. 'We never leave a man behind.' When he felt he'd internalized the statement enough, he began to walk slowly towards his tent again. It was midafternoon, and the hot sun was blazing down on his bare shoulders, making him feel every one of the long hard days he'd spent in the army.

He suddenly felt drained, and an inexplicable exhaustion came over him. Trudging into the tent, he sat down on his cot. Haslin was already lying on his own cot, reading some story on his datapad. Korwin removed his combat boots and his jumpsuit and lied down on his cot, pulling the sheet up over his chest. He closed his eyes, and as he drifted off to sleep, he heard Haslin's voice inside his head. 'We never leave a man behind.'

* * *

Korwin awoke to Haslin calling his name loudly and roughly shaking him. He opened his eyes and pushed the hands away, and said, "What time is it?"

"1745 boss. We got fifteen minutes to get to Battalion CP."

Korwin nodded his head and yawned loudly, before swinging his legs off the edge of the cot and putting them on the warm sandy floor of the tent. He slipped his tan, army issue socks on and then pulled on his unmarked mission jumpsuit. After zipping it up, he put on his boots and laced them up. When he was finished, he stood up, and said, "Alright, let's go." He grabbed a ration bar to eat on the way to the briefing, and then strode out of the tent with Haslin at his side. Just as they were going out, Avery and Kierse were going in. The four of the them stopped.

Avery said, "Where ya'll goin', all dressed up like that?" He asked, pointing to the unmarked jumpsuits.

Korwin glanced down at himself, and then over at Haslin. He shrugged, and said, "Cap wanted to see me and Haslin."

Avery laughed, and said, "Good luck man. Whatever you did." He gave another short chuckle and pushed past his comrades and went into the tent.

Kierse shook his head, and said, "Dragging poor Has down with you. You should be ashamed, Magic." Kierse went into the tent as well. Korwin looked over at Haslin and shrugged. They started off for the Battalion CP.

While they were walking, Korwin turned to Haslin and said, "So Has, what kind of animals you got on your ranch?"

Haslin replied, "Bantha, mostly, and some nerf's."

"No shit? You got bantha on Dantooine?" Korwin thought they were only on Tatooine.

"Yeah, but they're a different breed. Hair's a little longer, they're a little fatter. Good eats. Although, from what I hear, that ain't exactly fly over here."

Korwin raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

"Well apparently, these Sandpeople are all religious about their bantha. They're like, sacred beasts or some shit like that. Crazy, huh boss?"

Korwin chuckled. "No shit. Crazy." On Juno IV, the ancient religion of the human tribes who had settled the Celka region thousands of years ago had been based on nature. The elements and the animals. The animals of the Northern Rainforests and the Celkha'kw'taan Mountains were still revered by the people to this day...even if they did eat them.

Upon arriving in the large tent complex that made up the CP, they were escorted by an MP in guard uniform to a small briefing room that was separated from the rest of the CP by a low-frequency energy field that effectively dampened the sounds from within. There was a long table set up, with several chairs. Captain Borlin occupied one of them, and in another was seated General Oreth himself. Korwin's eyebrows shot up when he saw a man standing next to the holoprojector wearing a civilian robe. He was dressed in rich purples and blacks, and his black hair hung in a thick braid to the center of his back. Korwin noted that his hands were manicured, and he was decidedly too clean to have been on Tatooine for more than a day or two.

But there was something in the man's eyes when he turned to face them that Korwin recognized instantly. This man was a soldier. Or he had been. He had the stone-faced, cold-eyed stare of a professional killer. It was something that Korwin saw every time he looked in a mirror. After a moment, the hard stare faded, and was replaced by a warm smile. The man strode away from the holoprojector and around the table, and extended his hand to first Korwin, then Haslin. After shaking hands, he said "Corporal Nalan, Private Haslin...good evening. My name is Jericho Manistl, and I'll be giving you your briefing." He gestured to the empty seats at the table, and said, "Please sit."

The two young enlisted men made as if to salute their Company CO and the Regimental CO, but General Oreth waved them off. "I may be brass these days, but I remember being a grunt and having to salute every peacock with stripes and bars that walked by." The pale-skinned general smiled at his subordinates, and said, "The only time my right arm had seen that much action before was when I hit puberty and discovered my old man's holoporn collection."

The joke eased some of the tension in the room and sent a wave of chuckles through it, and Korwin found himself liking the general immediately. He'd never met his Regimental CO before, and the short, slim, wiry man before him wasn't what he'd expected. His hair was gray, his skin pale...almost sallow, and he had sunken blue eyes of a dull, unremarkable hue. There was a brilliant spark of intelligence and humor behind them though, and Korwin recognized that in him right away. He finished laughing and sat down in one of the chairs. After Haslin had settled in next to him, Jericho began the briefing.

"I'm sure you boys are wondering what this is about." He picked up a small remote and clicked a button on it, turning on the holoprojector. "Recently, Alliance Intelligence agents discovered the exact whereabouts of Grand General Hiran Bonshaf, the Supreme Imperial Commander of Tatooine's forces. He has been forced to the surface of Tatooine, following the destruction of his flagship in space combat over the planet." A click on another button brought up an image of a tall, slightly overweight white man with graying red hair. He wore the deep green uniform of an Imperial Grand General, and had a heavy blaster pistol holstered on his right hip. Korwin studied the figure closely, burning his image into his mind.

Switching to an image of a large desert villa that was cut into the top of a cliff, Jericho continued, "This is his current base of operations, on the far southwestern edge of the Dune Sea." Jericho turned his attention away from the holoprojector, and said, "You two are going to go there, and kill him." He made sure to make eye contact with each troop, and Korwin assumed that he was looking for some kind of negative reaction. He got nothing from either man, and he continued on.

"You will airlifted at 2130 tonight to the plateau that top stories of the villa lay on. Private Haslin, you will camo up, find a hide, and wait until daybreak." Turning to Korwin, Jericho said, "Corporal Nalan, you have a much more difficult job. You will be dropped near the base of the cliff, as the cliff is the only blindspot in their electronic security grid. Apparently they don't feel that assault from the desert floor is a threat. We will correct that wrong thinking. You will scale the cliff, and enter the house via an underground cavern system that helps provide ventilation to the building."

Korwin opened his mouth to protest the sanity of the idea, when General Oreth held up a hand with a wry smirk on his face, and said, "Just wait son...it get's better."

Jericho shot a glare at the General, and then said, "As I was saying, you will enter the cellar of the building, here," He changed the holoprojector to a large scale 3D blueprint of the cliff house, "and will then make your way into the house at 0820. You will be provided with stormtrooper armor to get you through the house." He used a laser pointed to trace a red path through the house, to a small study room on the third story above ground. "Follow the hallway down to this turbolift, and make your way to the study once you reach the third floor. Inside, you will find a computer databank. The non-combat staff at this house is minimal, and the likelihood of there being anyone in there is slim. Their computer systems are set to perform automatic diagnostics and are only seen to in an emergency situation." He removed a small datadisc from his robe, and handed it to Korwin.

"Insert this into the dataport, and it will begin downloading all of the information available. This will take somewhere between eight and ten minutes, so be on your toes. When the data has finished downloading, exit the building via the same route, and fall back to this extraction point." The extraction point was almost a mile south of the insertion point, but that didn't bother him.

Haslin raised his hand, and said, "Pardon me boss, but when do I vape the guy?"

Jericho smiled, and said, "Eager to do your job. I like that in a soldier." Clicking to a view of the house from the plateau, he said, "At 0830 each Saturday morning, he walks out the front door of the house, and walks to this garage and gets in his armored speeder. From there, he heads into the desert, where he goes hunting for wraids. At 0830, when he comes out that door, you're going to take the first clean shot you have. I want no mistakes on this one, from either of you. This mission is critical." He took a deep breath, then shut off the holoprojector. "So is your silence. Tell no one about what you're doing tonight. Ever. Understand? That goes for the bad guys too, Nalan. No witnesses if possible. If anyone compromises the mission in the house, eliminate them."

Korwin and Haslin both nodded solemnly. They were being asked to do something distinctly unsoldierly. This wasn't war. This was assassination and grand espionage. If they were caught, there would be no POW prison, there would be no mock trials with even a slim chance of eventually winning freedom. There would be torture, and death. Still, they'd already accepted, and backing out wasn't an option. All the same, Korwin couldn't help but ask, "Why us? Why not SpecOps?"

Jericho smiled genially at him, and replied, "We don't have time to fly them in. We need this done now, because we have no idea how long this situation will remain static. War is a very fluid process, and we can't count on this window of opportunity to stay open."

_In other words, _Korwin thought, rather cynically, _we're more expendable._

* * *

"So if you weren't ever supposed to talk about it, why are you revealing it now, over thirty years later?" Laina inquired, her gaze pointed.

Korwin cocked his head to the side, and said, "The last documents on this mission...and believe me, there aren't many, were finally declassified two years ago. For all the good that the New Republic's done, they've got some skeletons in their closet. As much as they'd hate to admit it to a new generation who can't remember, the Alliance started out as a bunch of guerilla's and smugglers. They weren't above assassinating Imperial officers and officials, and that continued during my involvement, when the Alliance was fully capable of fielding a sizeable force. It was an unconventional conflict that wasn't going to be won by conventional means."

"How does it feel to have participated in such things?"

"I've done worse."

* * *

The box hovered silently over the sand, and Korwin hopped out, dressed in his recon jumpsuit, sporting a duffel, and a length of climbing fiber. The box disappeared into the night, and Korwin began trotting towards the cliff. He could see the house jutting out over the top, carved deep into the face of the ancient red stone. It was much more impressive in real life. It's presence was looming, ominous, as he reached the base of the cliff. Looking up, he felt as though he were standing underneath a great boulder that teetered on the edge of his oblivion.

Taking a deep breath, and shaking off his misgivings, he attached the climbing chord to the gun and fired it high into the air. After a few seconds, he heard a satisfying clink, and gave a hard tug on the line. After making sure that the small grapnel was secure in the stone, he attached the gun to his belt and allowed it to pull him up the hook. He found the he was actually nearly fifteen feet over the opening he needed to find.

Clinging tightly to the face of the cliff, he carefully removed the grapnel from the stone and let it wind back into the gun. The duffel was beginning to weigh on him now, and he realized that he was going to have to do something about it fast. He looked down and saw a good foothold. Carefully extending his right leg, he jammed his toes onto the tiny outcropping and lowered himself down. He continued in this manner, slowly, until he was hanging in the opening of the ventilation shaft. It was huge.

He looked down, and realized that all he had to do was let go and he would drop the final four feet. Then he realized that he had no margin for error. If he slipped, or leaned back at all, he was dead. That was it. Suddenly, the idea of getting off the cliff seemed much less appealing. He released with one hand, and slung the duffel into the shaft, before grabbing back on to his handhold. "Shit." He muttered to himself. His forearms were beginning to burn from the effort of holding on with his fingertips, and his hands were starting to cramp up. He stared into the airshaft, and then back down at the edge of it. It was only a couple hundred feet down if he missed, with all the sand down there he might make it out permanently maimed if he was lucky.

"I'm only eighteen. I should be waking up at home from a three day drunk next to some girl I've never met before." He was babbling, he realized. And it was comforting. It was also something he shouldn't be doing. Forcing himself to be silent, he began gently swinging his legs back and forth, gaining momentum, until he felt confident enough to fling himself forward into the shaft. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he fell forward. He knew he must look ridiculous, but there was no one there to impress, and it was better to be safe than sorry.

Standing up, he opened up the duffel and removed the suit of stormtrooper armor within. Quickly taking off his jumpsuit, he donned the tight black body suit, followed by the white armor, and finally, the helmet. He switched the helmets lenses to nightvision, and then picked up his E-11 blaster, the only piece of Alliance equipment that might be used besides the datadisc.

Taking one more deep, steadying breath, he started up the dark airshaft, intent on finding his destination. He eventually found the small portal that led to the maintenance and computer room that regulated the flow of air through the house. As had been promised near the end of the three and a half hour, the room was empty, but for a mindless droid that wouldn't question a stormtrooper.

He walked past the droid, and came into the large cellar that was adjacent. Bottles of wine lined the walls in great wooden racks, and he saw casks of some kind of liquor; most likely brandy or whiskey, lining the walls near a small staircase that led to his hallway. He strode to the stairs, and then paused at the door. He listened carefully, and heard nothing in the hallway beyond. Opening the old-style wooden door, he stepped into a dark, dusty hallway. He took a left, as he'd been briefed, and began following the hallway.

He followed the path laid out in the briefing exactly as ordered, and found the study exactly where it was supposed to be. Steeling himself, he pushed the door open and stepped inside. As soon as the door had shut behind him, he realized that he wasn't alone. The room was occupied. Standing next to a large computer console was a pretty young human woman in an Imperial Army uniform. She was a Lt., judging by the rank insignia on her uniform. Probably wouldn't go any further as an Imp, her being a woman. She glanced up at him, and said, "Is there something I can do for you Sergeant?"

**_BLAM!_**

A single shot rang out in the small room, followed by the sound of a body hitting the floor. Korwin rushed over the console she'd been standing at and inserted the datadisc into the disc port. The downloading began, and he looked down at the young officer. Staring at her, he thought, _This is the part of the holodrama where the hero is thankful that he set his blaster to stun._ It wasn't a holodrama though. The blackened, smoking hole in her chest attested to that. She'd never make anything of herself now. This was all she'd ever be. All she'd ever have the chance to be. She certainly wasn't a combat soldier, and that gave him pause.

Staring at her, he was suddenly overcome by a rush of emotion. She was young, perhaps in her late twenties. She was very pretty, with a light tan and lovely, thick brown hair. Her soft brown eyes would have been beautiful had he seen them before he snuffed out the spark of life inside. He wondered if she had a husband or a lover somewhere, or children who would miss her. He realized suddenly that he'd never killed a woman before. He'd never thought of it. For some reason, it felt different than killing a man. He couldn't stop staring at her, feeling a terrible sense of guilt welling up inside him. He could have stunned her, taken her prisoner. She might have had a future in the Alliance. Now she'd never have a future as anything. She couldn't have been much older than Eli. Not by more than five years.

A soft beep from the computer prompted him to rip his gaze away from the young woman's corpse. He ejected the datadisc and slipped it into a small pouch on his belt. Taking one last look at the woman, he said, "I'm sorry." Turning away, he forced himself to walk from the room, and tried to push her from his mind. He strode hurriedly down the hall and made his way to the turbolift. He found his way back to the cellar, and out into the shaft. He hurriedly doffed the white armor he was wearing and slipped on his jumpsuit and combat boots again. He slung his E-11 over his right shoulder, and pulled his vibrodagger from the duffel, sheathing it at the small of his back. The last order of business was making sure that the datadisc was safely zipped up in one of his jumpsuit pockets.

After stuffing the Imp equipment into the duffel, he stepped to the edge of the airshaft and hurled the bag out, and down to the sands below. Then, firmly attaching his grapnel to a large chunk of stone next to the airshaft's opening, he began rappelling down the face of the cliff. When his feet touched the sandy desert floor, he released the line and trotted over to the duffel. Quickly burying the bag, he trotted towards a low-rising dune a couple hundred feet away from the cliff. Putting the dune between himself and the clifftop, he began making his way towards the extraction point. It was broad daylight, and well past second sunrise, and he was beginning to feel a bit exposed.

He looked to his left, and saw that he was well-hidden from Imperial eyes. Turning his gaze to the vast Western Dune Sea, he felt the hairs on the back of his neck begin to stand up. He still had nearly three quarters of a mile to go before extraction, and he had no means of communication should something go wrong. There was too much risk that Imperial listeners could pick up the transmission. The only thing he had besides his weapons, should an emergency occur, was a small homing beacon with a range of two miles. It had a neutral signal, but one that the black box's receivers were calibrated to pick up on.

Turning his eyes forward again, he picked up his pace, his gut now telling him that something was wrong. He hadn't taken ten steps when the sand in front of him shot into the air like an ancient, dusty geyser. His rifle came into his hands, and he fired from the hip, sending a short burst of blaster bolts into the dust cloud. He heard the agonized death scream of a Tusken Raider, and knew that he was in trouble. Where there was one, there was at least a small warband.

Korwin whirled around, looking for the attack he knew would be coming from behind. A large sandperson was bearing down on him, gaffi stick swinging. He raised his rifle to fire, but wasn't fast enough. The Tusken knocked his rifle away, and he hopped nimbly away from the follow up attack, his dagger coming into his hand. He thumbed the power button, and the gentle hum of the vibration cell drifted up to his ears. He was about to lunge forward and attack, when he felt a sudden sense of overwhelming danger. Dropping to one knee, he heard the loud report of a slugthrower rifle, and a gory red flower blossomed on the chest of the sandperson he'd been fighting.

Korwin sprang to his feet and whirled around, catching sight of a Tusken, down on one knee in a firing position. He was roughly thirty feet away. Throwing caution to the wind, he sprinted straight at the Tusken, eliciting what he hoped was shock and fear. The being hesitated for a moment, and it's next shot went just wide. As Korwin bore down on it, it hurried to it's feet and began scrambling backward. As Korwin reached the Sandperson, he found himself staring down the barrel of it's rifle.

Time slowed for Korwin, and he felt the icy breath of death on the nape of his neck. His left hand swept up, pushing the barrel aside just as the Tusken pulled the trigger. Korwin felt the sting of the muzzle flash burning his left ear, and there was a painful ringing inside, but he ignored all of that. His right hand came up and a vicious arc, the mid-morning suns glinting off the silvery blade in his hand, and the vibrodagger slammed home into the side of the Tusken's neck.

He heard the muffled footsteps of a sandperson approaching from behind, and he sprang backward, turning in midair. The Sandperson's gaffi stick shot out towards him, and he grabbed the weapon's shaft with his left hand and pulled it across his chest. The attacking sandperson overextended was overextended from the failed attack, and found a sharp blade buried in his gut. Korwin stabbed him four more times in quick succession, making sure he was finished, and then looked around.

Three more approached, and he held himself ready. He noticed that there were several of them lining the tops of nearby dunes, holding rifles, and he wondered why they didn't use them. His train of thought crashed hard when the three approaching sandpeople converged on him. As the one on the left attacked, he skipped to his right, and darted in towards the sandperson he was now facing. The Tusken sent a vicious blow towards his head, but he turned his body as he came in and took it on his left shoulder. He felt the joint flare up with pain, and then he was slicing away at his opponents torso. Two quick slashes across the abdomen put the Tusken out of the fight, and Korwin shoulder-checked the dying creature at his comrades.

Both reacted quickly and got out of the way. They stepped closer to him, trying to flank him, but Korwin sidestepped left. He tried to close with the Tusken he was closest to, but it stepped right, creating an opening for him to step between itself and it's partner. Not taking the bait, Korwin stepped back and watched his opponents warily. Abruptly, they decided that strategy was overrated, and with a series of honking sounds exchanged, they charged.

Korwin backpedaled quickly, and as they converged on him, he tucked his legs beneath him and launched himself at the Tusken on the right. The force of the impact rattled his teeth, and he and the primitive warrior went tumbling across the sand. Korwin didn't wait for the roll to stop before he began lashing out with his fist and his blade. He couldn't see what he was hitting, but he knew he was hitting something.

All the while, he could feel the Tusken's hard fists impacting his face, could hear the excited screams of dozens of the creature's as they cheered the fight on. Suddenly, Korwin found himself lifted off of his opponent and hurled away. Miraculously, he kept his grip on his dagger when he landed, and came unsteadily to his feet. The Tusken he'd been on the ground with was curled up on his side, writhing slowly. There was only one left.

The creature slowly approached Korwin, it's gaffi stick held in front of it. Korwin glanced over to where he'd lost his rifle, and was dismayed to see it in the hands of a stoutly built Tusken. Quickly turning his attention back to the fight, he thought noticed a shift in the Tusken's weight. Before the being could complete it's attack, Korwin was already preparing to defend against it.

As the gaffi stick was thrust out towards his face, Korwin sidestepped the attack and thrust his vibrodagger downward. The sandperson screamed as it's kick was halted by Korwin's blade slicing through skin and flesh like so much soft butter, and embedding itself deeply in it's femur. Korwin twisted the blade viciously, and pushed the Tusken over on it's back. Pulling the dagger from it's leg, he jammed it into it's chest, and then finished with a stab to the neck.

The Sandpeople on the tops of the dunes began screeching and braying at the top of their lungs, creating an awful din. Korwin suddenly realized that his ride would be getting to the extraction point soon. There was no way he'd make it. Keeping crouched over the dead Tusken Raider to camouflage his movements, Korwin unzipped the pocket that contained the homing beacon. He activated it and sent a prayer up to Atluut'k, the Junoan god of luck. Then he stood up slowly, and backed away from the corpse, ready to continue fighting until he succumbed to fatigue and they finished him off for good or decided he wasn't worth the trouble and shot him.

The damned beasts were still braying and hollering, and it was giving him a headache. Out of nowhere, Korwin felt a jarring blow to the back of his head, and his vision swam. He felt his knees going weak, but was determined to keep his feet. A second blow erased any chance of that, and he dropped to his hands and knees, nausea overcoming his desire to stand and fight. He was only aware of the pain for a moment longer, when he felt a third sharp blow, sending him into darkness.

* * *

"That's quite a predicament." Laina said, an understatement if ever there was one.

Korwin nodded his head, his expression somber, and he said, "I just had to take it on faith that my guys would get there in time. And when they knocked me out, that was that. It was all up to chance."

"Well, how about we adjourn until after lunch, and we can come back to it."

Korwin smiled broadly, his dark face lighting up at the mention of food. "Sounds like a plan. I'll see you in an hour."

"See you then." Said Laina.


	23. Soldier 18

Here we are, the next chapter...hope it meets with your approval.

* * *

"How was lunch?" Laina asked pleasantly.

"It was good." Korwin replied. "Ready to keep going?"

"Sure. Why don't we pick up after the confrontation with the sandpeople."

"Alright then. I came to a short while later, and my head was aching something fierce."

* * *

"Oh gods, what the fuck?" Korwin muttered, wincing at the pounding in his head.

"Relax boss. We're on the box, headed home." Korwin looked slowly towards the source of the voice, and saw a dusty Private Haslin with sweat-smeared greasepaint sitting near him. A medic hovered to his left, and he noticed a tight feeling around his head. A gentle probe with his hand revealed it to be a bandage.

"What happened?"

Haslin grinned, and said, "You got away lucky again. We came in just in time to see you getting hauled off by Tusken's, so we...intervened on your behalf." The door gunners both chuckled, but kept their eyes on the ground below, searching for hostiles.

Korwin slowly turned his head toward the SkyCorps medic, a female zabrak, and said, "What's my problem doc?"

She smiled, and said, "Nothing a couple days of good rest and a bacta injection won't cure. You've got a pretty badly bruised skull, and I'm fairly certain a couple simple tests will point to a concussion. All in all, you got away pretty good for having tangled with the Sand People." She patted him gently on the shoulder, and said, "I'm going to take a look at your eyes. Hold still." Producing a small flashlight, she held shined it first in his left eye, and then in his right. Nodding to herself, she held up her right index finger, and said, "Follow my finger Corporal."

Korwin followed her finger as best he could, but it didn't help that there were two of them. After a moment, he began blinking rapidly. His head was starting to hurt even worse. The medic said, "Okay, that's enough for me. You've definitely got a concussion." She looked over at Haslin and said, "So this guy really does shit like this all the time?"

"Sure does."

"But why?"

Haslin shrugged. "Because he can."

* * *

Korwin sat up and stretched his arms out, happy to note that his head felt much better. He'd been resting for four days now, two in the aid station, two in the 3rd Platoon tent. He rubbed his eyes slowly, and swung his legs around. Looking at the small trunk that he usually kept clean clothes in, he noticed a package of brand new desert camo's sitting on top of it. He picked it up and opened it, removing the contents from within. Instead of pulling out a jumpsuit, he pulled out separate shirt and pants. "Fatigues." He said to himself, happy that the Army had finally gotten what they'd been asking for.

Putting his new fatigues on over his underclothes, he shoved his feet into his combat boots and laced them up. Picking up his vibrodagger, he strapped it on and stood up. He walked to his pack and pulled a ration bar out of it, opened it up and took a bite. He chewed the almost flavorless nutrient bar, and swallowed the mealy result of his mastication. It wasn't much, but it was better than Army chow.

Stepping out of the tent, he squinted in the bright midmorning sunlight, and smiled. It felt good to be up and moving again. He began strolling unhurriedly towards Captain Borlin's tent. It was time to get his leave slip signed. He looked around as he walked, and spotted Kierse standing with a couple troops from M Company Recon. He trotted towards them, and hollered, "Hey Kierse! What're you doing hanging out with them half-rate Larry's?"

The three troops turned towards Korwin's voice, and Sergeant Eckra yelled back, "Look who's talking! Most wounded man in the Rebellion!" Sgt. Eckra was a beautiful, crimson-skinned Zelnorm woman. She was the team leader of M Company Recon.

Korwin grinned, and said, "Just one more claim to fame." Turning to Kierse, he said, "Hey man, walk with me."

Kierse nodded, and said to Sgt. Eckra and her medic, "I'll see you guys later." They bid him farewell, and he turned to follow Korwin. "So where we headed?"

"I'm going to see Cap." Korwin replied.

"Ah...back to work huh?" Kierse asked.

Korwin nodded his head. Looking at Kierse, he said, "Probably."

Kierse nodded, and said, "So, uh Magic. I was gonna tell you about this a few days ago, but...I don't know, you whacked your head good, and you were sleeping it off for a while. Anyway, Cap is sending us all on leave. We've got permission from General Oreth and everything." He grinned, and said, "I don't know what you and Haslin said to Borlin when you got called in that night, but he's letting us off on leave for ten days."

Korwin nodded his head, playing it off as though he'd known all along. Inside though, he was shocked that Borlin had granted leave to his whole squad. He'd thought it was just going to be him and Haslin, but for the whole squad to go on leave; and for ten days! "Yeah, we talked about it. Our service record is tops in Recon right now, so we pulled leave. Where are you going?"

Kierse grinned. "My mom and dad took our family to this tropical resort world called Darcell Komm once. Fucking beautiful. I'm going there. Hyperspace travel should take about a day one way, so I'll have eight days in the sun, relaxing on the beach. What about you?"

"Naboo." Korwin said, with a grin and a raised eyebrow.

"Of course. Well, much as I'm enjoying this chat, I'm kind of hungry. I'm heading over to the mess tent; see if I can scrounge up some leftovers."

"How can you eat that shit?" Korwin asked, his face twisted into an expression of disgust.

"Ever lived on Pulani Bog Snakes for three months on an 'educational trek through the deep forests and scenic plains of Pulani Prime'?"

"Can't say as I have."

"Okay then. So we understand each other." Kierse replied.

Korwin shook his head. "I don't think so. But that's fine. Go eat, I'll go see Cap, and I'll talk to you later."

"Later Magic." Kierse turned and headed off in the direction of the mess tents, while Korwin continued on towards Captain Borlin's tent.

When he arrived, Captain Borlin was finishing up a conversation via comlink. He held up a hand for silence, and then gestured for Korwin to take a seat. "I understand sir. I'll be in contact with Major Jundre of M Company momentarily." He clicked off the comlink, and then said, "Nalan, I assume you're here about your leave slip."

Korwin nodded, and said, "Yes sir."

Borlin said, "I've got it signed already. We've got a transport lined up for you and your squad that will take you to a battleship orbiting the planet. From there, you'll each go your separate ways for the duration of your leave. You're scheduled to leave on Saturday, at 0630."

Korwin raised an eyebrow. "That's four days sir. What are we supposed to do until then."

Borlin sighed, and said, "We've got a problem. Last night, a small X-wing flight in the upper atmosphere recorded a group of three Imperial heavy sandskimmer's moving across the desert in the western draw. We're not one hundred percent sure what they're doing, but it looks like an armored recon unit. Each vehicle carries five men. If it is a reconnaissance unit, each vehicle would carry a driver, two riflemen, a medic, and a gunner to man the heavy repeating blaster mounted in the back. That's a total of fifteen men, and a lot of firepower."

"So we're going back out then?"

Borlin nodded his head, and said, "One more mission, then you get your leave. Assemble your squad and have them in here at 2030. You will be briefed along with Sgt. Eckra's M Company Recon squad. You'll receive the details of your mission then." Borlin stood up and said, "That's all. Dismissed."

Korwin stood up and saluted his CO. After receiving a snappy salute in return, he walked out of the tent. He grit his teeth, and clenched his fists, fighting to keep his frustration from turning into anger. _One more fucking op. What the fuck?_ He shook his head, and focused on the job at hand. He needed to find his squadmates and get them assembled, and possibly sobered up. The first place he checked was the mess tent. Sure enough, Kierse was sitting outside with a dish of something that resembled eggs and some kind of grayish meat thing. Kierse glanced up at his squad leader, and said, "What's the word Magic?"

"The word is, our leave begins on Saturday morning at 0630. We'll be shipped up to a battleship in orbit, and then taken on shuttles to our leave destinations. Probably via mail shuttles or something. The other word is, we have one more mission to run before that happens." Korwin licked his lips slowly, and said, "It's going to be a joint op, with Eckra's squad."

Kierse nodded slowly, and stuffed a bite of eggs into his mouth. After swallowing, he said, "What time's briefing?"

"2030 hours." Korwin replied.

"Alright...Kreth is around camp somewhere, Haslin is off on the firing range, and Azen's in Mos Espa with Drendel. I'll head into town after I'm done eating and get Azen if you round up the rest of the crew." Kierse said, before taking a bite of his rather suspect meat product.

"Sounds good. We'll meet in our tent at 1500 hours, and I'll fill everyone in on the briefing time and all that." Kierse gave the thumbs-up signal, and Korwin turned away. He had an ulterior motive for the 1500 meeting. It was the only way to ensure that Avery was sober when briefing time rolled around, and if the whole squad didn't show Avery would get suspicious and correctly reason that it was all about him.

Korwin started off for the firing range, deciding to speak with Haslin first. He'd be the easiest to deal with. If the whole damn squad knew about leave, chances are they were all going to be pissed when they found out they had to run one more operation before going. Avery especially. As Korwin strode towards the firing range on the southern edge of camp, he wondered where Avery would go on his leave. He couldn't go home anymore than Korwin could. Korwin smirked. _He'll probably go with Kierse, spend a week and a half drunk on a tropical beach, chasing women of any species that's pleasing to the eye._ Actually, the idea wasn't half bad. But no, he had to go see Eli.

When Korwin finally found Haslin on the range, he was lying prone in the sand, shooting with a slugthrower rifle that had been fitted with a scope. Korwin watched him take a shot at a target that was so far downfield that he couldn't pick it out with the naked eye. Korwin picked up Haslin's sporting blaster rifle and sighted down the scope at the target. It was a perfect bullseye. "Damn Has, 1500 yards with a slugthrower. Glad you're on my team."

Haslin set down the archaic rifle and stood up. "Tweren't nothin' boss." He said in an exaggerated twang. "What's up?"

Korwin ran a hand over his cornrows, and said, "Well, I talked to Cap a little earlier." He paused, and took a moment to remove his fatigue top. It was getting quite warm out. He slung it over his shoulder, and then shook his head. Glancing back at the camp, he said, "We got one more mission to run before leave."

"What? What the fuck boss, Cap never said anything about that." Haslin said, his volume beginning to rise. Quickly lowering his voice, he stepped closer to his squad leader, and said, "Listen man, we did some heavy shit for them. This is bantha poodoo, boss. I mean, c'mon man; we should already be shipping out now that you're healthy."

Korwin shrugged, and said, "You can tell Captain Borlin that when he briefs us. Nothing I can do about it. Be in the Platoon tent at 1500, I'll let you know a little more."

"You got it boss." Haslin muttered unhappily. He plopped down on the sand again, and picked up his sporting blaster rifle.

Korwin sighed and walked off to the camp again, in search of Kreth. It didn't take him long to find her. She was sitting with Jenna Melara from 1st Platoon and a Twilek female from R Company. Korwin approached them, but dispensed with his usual pleasantries. He had no desire to get caught up in whatever the women were talking about. "Kreth, I need to talk to you for a minute." He waited for her to excuse herself from her conversation, and then lead her off a ways. Turning to face her, he said, "You know about our leave, right?"

Kreth nodded, and grinned. "I can't wait. It'll be _so_ good to get off this rock for a few days."

Korwin said, "Well, that's good to hear. But we have another mission to run before we head out."

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"I mean what I said. I talked to Cap, and we have another mission. Be in the platoon tent at 1500. I'm telling everyone what's going on then."

"Okay. I'll be there." said Kreth. "Is that all?"

Korwin, glad to see her taking it in stride, said, "Yup, that's it. I'll see you in a few hours."

She nodded, and said, "See you." Kreth turned and walked back to her friends. Korwin sighed, and turned back for K Company's part of tent town, intent on catching some shut-eye before he talked to his troops.

* * *

Korwin grinned, and said, "I slept right up until 1500. My squad came in and woke me up, and I gave them the rundown on the briefing, and the fact that it would be a joint op. Avery, predictably, was pissed. He threw a fit for almost ten minutes after I told them all what I knew, and we just sat there and rode it out. Of course, come 2030 we were all assembled in the Battalion CP, along with Sgt. Eckra's squad from M Company." Korwin sipped his water, and said, "The briefing they laid out for us was simple enough, and the details of the mission would be left to us in the field."

Laina nodded her head, and recorded the information on her datapad. "Why don't we start with the briefing then?" She asked.

Korwin said, "Alright then. It was short and sweet, the way I liked em', and the briefing didn't give me any anxiety over the coming mission. It sounded like a breeze."

* * *

Korwin sat in his folding metal chair in the briefing room of the 3rd Battalion Command Post. Captain Borlin, and Major Jundre of Mandalorian Company, stood in front of the large holoprojector. Switching it on, Major Jundre, started the briefing. "The situation is this. We have three Heavy Sandskimmers headed our way. They're still in the desert to the west of Mos Espa yet, but we can only assume that this is an attempt at close reconnaissance. They don't have any aerial troop carrier's with stealth capabilities, so this is the only means they have of getting close without us spotting them. Luckily for us, we've established space superiority, and have eyes in the sky."

Taking a moment to collect his thoughts, the Major continued on. "As of this moment they are still in the desert, camping as far as we know. They should be picking up and moving within the next three hours, when all is completely dark and they're sure most of us are sleeping peacefully. Sgt. Eckra's squad will be designated Blue Team, and Cpl. Nalan's squad will be designated Green Team. As this is going to be a night op, you will be given night-vision apparatus' to use. Don't think for a second that the enemy doesn't have the same. You will be protected from their night vision somewhat, as the material that your fatigues are made of is designed to absorb light, as opposed to refracting it. That should give you some advantage."

Borlin stepped up now, and said, "Overall control of both teams goes to Cpl. Nalan for this op. The combined unit will be known as Tusken 1. You will be dropped via black box approximately 200 meters from the enemy's current position. You are to move up to their position without delay and neutralize all hostile targets. Your demolitions specialists will be equipped with blaster cannons to deal with the armored vehicles. When you've completed the mission and are ready for extraction, you are to radio in with, 'Tusken 1 has taken Anchorhead.'"

Borlinpaused and said, "Imp ears may be listening from somewhere, and we don't want to give them an immediate heads up that we've dropped their reconnaissance patrol. The box will be circling nearby, and will be at your position for extraction shortly after you make your call." Making eye contact with of the troops in the room, he said, "We could have sent a company of regulars out there, or taken them out with an airstrike, but we need the intimidation factor on our side. We want the Imps to understand what it means to be an elite recon troop. You're going to show them."

A resounding cheer went up from the two recon squads, and much mutual back-patting went around between the ten soldiers, until Borlin held up a hand for silence. "One final thing. If possible, try and capture one of the enemy vehicles. Keep in mind that this is a secondary objective, and is not critical to the success of the mission. But it sure would be nice to have a little memento to send the techies. We'll have a box standing by with a crew to drive it back if you're successful." Everyone nodded their understaning, and then Borlin said, "Alright. Visit the Gunny to get yourselves armed up. Take whatever you want, just try and bring it all back when you're done with it. Your box leaves in one hour. Dismissed."

The assembled recon troops stood up and filed out of the tent. Eckra stepped up to Korwin, and said, "Looks like you're the boss, Magic."

Korwin shrugged. "Ain't nothin'." As his normal pre-op adrenaline began to pump, he began to get excited about the prospect of one more mission. "Let's go get strapped up." he said forcefully.

Most of the troops arrived at the landing field with their standard issue E-11 blaster rifles in hand, and all of them had clipped frag grenades and plasma grenades onto their harnesses.. Haslin had traded his sporting blaster rifle for a light repeating blaster with a night vision scope and a tripod, as had Eckra's sniper, and Kierse and Eckra's demolitions specialist each carried a blaster cannon over a shoulder in addition to the rifles in their hands. The long, smooth weapons were really just gray durasteel tubes with a pistol grip and trigger, and a grip near the end of the barrel. They shot a concentrated ball of plasma that was capable of penetrating almost any armor that the Imperial Army could field. The armored sandskimmer's would be no different. Within the hour, both squads were taped up, painted up, and ready to roll.

There was a single black box to carry all ten troops into the desert. Korwin waited until all of Tusken 1 was on board the box before hopping onto the edge. He hollered up to the pilot, "Good to go!" The box lifted up and rocketed off for the LZ. It only took twenty-minutes to get there, and as they were landing, they could just see the shapes of men moving about in the distance, clustered around the irregular shapes of the man-made machines. Korwin was the first onto the sand, and was followed shortly by both Green team and Blue team.

Once the box had left, Korwin said, "Everyone got the Imp's position as we were coming in?" He looked around the group to make sure that everyone was nodding their heads. After receiving affirmative answers all around, he said, "Eckra, take Blue team, swing around to the north and wait for my go. Set up your light repeater to the northeast of their position, no closer than forty yards. We don't want to risk a static position by setting them up too close. Green team, on me. Go." Eckra and her squad moved off towards their objective at a good clip, and Korwin began leading his squad towards the southeast side of the Imps position.

As they came by a tall dune on the approach to southern edge of the enemy camp, Korwin signaled to Haslin to set up his light repeater on the top of the towering mound of sand. As Haslin moved to comply, Korwin moved his squad along the bottom edge of the dune, and along the next one, which separated his squad from the enemy. They stopped for a moment, and Korwin signaled for everyone to check weapons one last time. Once he was satisfied that everything was in complete readiness, he crept to the top of the dune and lied down flat. His squad followed his example, and they looked down into the camp.

Sure enough, there were the three vehicles, sitting side by side and about eight yards apart. Korwin did a quick count of the Imps, and found that all fifteen troops that were expected were present and accounted for. An unpleasant smile broke out on Korwin's face as he realized that not one of them was manning their vehicles. Korwin pulled out his comlink and held it to his lips. He clicked the comm button, and whispered, "Go."

The first shot rang out from Eckra's sniper, as he sent a deadly accurate burst of fire into a closely clustered group of Imps that looked to be playing a card game in the sand. All of them went down, one of them writhing in pain. Korwin primed a grenade and threw it down towards three more that were running to help their downed comrades, killing all three in the small blast. Fire opened up from all sides, and the Imps ran for the cover of their vehicles. Once they'd reached them and were huddled down between them, they popped up periodically to ineffectively return fire.

One brave soldier jumped onto the back of a sandskimmer to man the heavy repeating blaster, but a bright blue ball of light streaked away from Kierse's blaster cannon and struck the vehicle just below the turret. The soldier was blown apart, as was the rear end of the sandskimmer. A second streak of light shot out from a blaster cannon across the way, and the second sandskimmer went up, as well as two stormtroopers who'd been taking cover beside it.

Korwin counted six more enemy, taking cover between the far sandskimmer, which had just been destroyed, and the lone undamaged vehicle in the middle. Knowing that they'd probably try and make a break for it if they could, he quickly decided on a course of action. He picked up his comlink and shouted into it, "Blue team, Has, suppressive fire, now!" The firing from both Eckra's squad and Haslin picked up dramatically, and forced the Imps to keep their heads low...low enough that it was tough to get in their vehicle.

Turning to his own squad, Korwin yelled, "Flanking maneuver, on me!" He led his squad around the dune, until they were looking at the sandskimmers from behind. Korwin ran to the bottom of the dune and fell prone, sighting down his barrel at the enemy. He began letting off concentrated bursts of energy at them, and his squad did likewise. The enemy, realizing they'd been flanked, frantically tried to return fire, but were cut down in moments.

Korwin held up a hand for a cease-fire, making sure that Blue team had a chance to see it before waving his troops in. "Let's make sure we didn't miss anything." he said to his squad. Keying his comlink, he said, "Blue team, give us a protective perimeter while we check the bodies."

Eckra's voice came back, "Perimeter up." It was difficult to see Eckra and her squadmates from here, even with the night vision. Their new fatigues didn't seem to be reflecting much light at all. The Major hadn't lied about that. Looking at his own teammates, he wondered if they were equally invisible at a distance. Being glad for small favors, he directed his team to the killzone under the watchful presence of Blue team. Korwin stopped at the troops they'd just shot down, and noticed that one of them was moaning and trying to crawl away from him. He sent a three round burst into his back, silencing him forever. He heard two similar bursts from elsewhere, signifying another survivor being mopped up. When they were sure that all enemy were dead, Korwin commed, "Targets neutralized, calling for extraction."

"Copy that." Came Eckra's reply.

Korwin keyed his comm to the CP's frequency. "This is Tusken 1. We have taken Anchorhead. Repeat, Tusken 1 has taken Anchorhead."

A moment later, the voice in his earpiece came back with, "Copy that Tusken 1. Did you secure the secondary?"

"Yes sir. Secondary objective is secured." Korwin replied.

"Good work. Command out."

Korwin sat down near the remaining sandskimmer and waited silently for the black box to arrive and extract them. After almost ten minutes, the whisper of the black box's engines engines announced it's arrival. Korwin keyed his comlink, and said, "Blue team, Has, bring it in. It's time to go home. Good work folks." The box was loaded up and lifting off within a minute, and they were safely on their way back to base camp. Korwin passed his gaze over the two recon squads, and shouted, "Anyone hit?" over the wind.

Both medics yelled back, "No!"

Korwin grinned happily. They'd managed to take the Imps completely by surprise, had accomplished both their primary and secondary objectives, and hadn't taken a single casualty while doing it. All in all, it was a good nights work. It had been as easy as it had sounded. When the box touched down, Korwin hopped off and began walking to his tent. The rest of his squad, minus Kierse and Haslin, followed. The other two had to return their weapons to the Gunny Sergeant. In his tent, Korwin stripped off his field gear, and broke down his weapons. After cleaning them thoroughly, he cleaned his gear as well, and then went to clean himself up. A quick shower washed off the greasepaint, and the grime that accumulated even on the shortest missions.

Now clean, Korwin headed back to his tent again, and lied down on his cot. Pulling out a thin notebook and a pen, he began writing to his family back home. He'd only sent them two letters so far, and it was high time he sent another. He'd written one long one to his family the last two times, but after a short period of deliberation, he decided to write each of them individually this time. He started with his mother, telling her that he was fine, that he hadn't been wounded in a while (the concussion didn't count, in his mind), and that he was going on leave for ten days to Naboo. He'd told the family about Eli in his first letter, and the letter he'd received in return and been ecstatic. He didn't mention the fighting, or the deaths, in his mother's letter. He didn't want her to worry about him too much.

Next, he wrote his brother. Kyren was the easiest one to write to. Kyren wanted to know all about the details of his battles. He was proud to have an older brother who was a member of an elite military force, and had written Korwin that he was proud to be related to someone who was fighting the Empire. Korwin told Kyren of some of his more recent escapades, though he omitted some of the more graphic details. He made no mention of the episode at the Grand General's villa, in any form. All in all, when he finished, his letter to his brother read almost like a script to some Corellian action holo. All of the big explosions and lightfights; none of the gruesome, heart-wrenching reality. He chuckled at the thought, and signed his name at the bottom anyway. After folding the letter, and putting Kyren's name on it, he started on his little sister's letter.

Elleri was harder for him to write to. There was precious little in a war-zone that a little girl needed to hear about. Instead he settled for telling her about Eli, and how nice and pretty she was, and how much Elleri would like her when she met her. He told her all about Theed, and the domes of the royal palace. He told her about the majestic waterfalls and the lush jungles below. He told her about the fountains and the wishing pools, and the outdoor cafe's with their smaller fountains and flower gardens. At the end, he promised her that he'd take her there when he was done with the war.

Thinking on it as he wrote it, he decided that it was as much a promise to himself as it was to her. It was a promise that he'd survive. He had to now. Signing his name and folding up the letter, he picked up the other two and put them in an envelope. Marking the address down, he stood up and put on a clean pair of fatigue pants and pulled on his boots. He trotted over to the quartermaster's tent and said, "Hey Meebeb, I got a letter to mail."

The Sullustan took the envelope from him and put it in a large mailbag. "Anything else?"

"Nope. Thanks man. Night."

"Goodnight."

Korwin turned and walked back to his tent. Less than four days now, and he'd be in hyperspace, on his way to see Eli. She wouldn't know he was coming; he hadn't had time to send a letter to notify her. He decided that he'd comm her once he got on planet, and giver her a surprise. It would be a pleasant surprise, hopefully. Smiling at the thought, he entered the tent and pulled off his boots and pants. Slipping under his sheet, he closed his eyes and willed himself to fall asleep as quickly as he could. He had three more days of nothing to do, and the sooner he got it over with, the better.

* * *

"It was one of the longest three day periods of the war for me. I knew, without doubt, the exact time and date of my departure, and who I was going to see. I was pretty antsy there for a few days." Korwin chuckled, and shook his head. "It was good to get on that ship and get the hell off Tatooine for a while."

Laina smiled, and said, "I can imagine." Looking down at her wrist chrono, she said, "Well, that's about all the time we have for today. We can continue in the morning with your trip to Naboo. See you tomorrow?"

Korwin nodded his head, and said, "See you tomorrow." Standing up, he took his leave of the sitting room. Laina smiled to herself as she shut down her datapad. It would be nice to hear about something other than war and death for a change. She found herself looking forward to the peaceful interludes almost as much as she imagined Korwin must have during the war. It was a strange thing, but as she talked to him, and learned his story, she was almost beginning to feel a strange bond with him. Chuckling privately to herself, Laina finished stowing her gear, and said, "Goodnight folks. I'll see you in the morning."


	24. Soldier 19

"So, are we ready to begin?" Laina asked pleasantly.

"Absolutely." Korwin smiled broadly, and said, "After those three days passed, my squad and I got on board a small shuttle and were flown up to _The Spirit of Alderaan_, a brand new Calamarian flagship that was being used as the operational headquarters for Tatooine Alliance High Command. We spent about an hour on board, sitting around a tapcaf smoking and drinking caf, and then each of us went to the hangar bays and got on separate mail ships and freighters. From there, it was off to Naboo for me."

* * *

Korwin watched through the cockpit's viewport as the swirling, blacklit vortex of hyperspace turned into long lines of light, and finally into the sparkling pinpricks of diamond stars sparkling in the void. The pilot brought the ship around, and the emerald and sapphire gem that was Naboo swung into view. Korwin caught his breath at the sight, and his stomach began to flip-flop he was so excited. He was almost there! "How much longer?" he asked the pilot.

The co-pilot answered for him. "About twenty-five minutes." Grinning up at the young recon man, he said, "Don't you worry soldier, we'll get you there on time; promise."

Korwin was glad for his dark skin, as he felt his face flushing with embarrassment. He was being a nuisance. "Sorry guys."

The pilot, a silver-haired human, chuckled softly and said, "Son, it's no worry. I can't imagine that I'd be particularly patient to get home from that blood-soaked dustball either."

"It ain't my home just yet." Korwin replied.

The co-pilot said, "Then why are you going?"

"A girl."

The pilot smirked, and said, "Of course. It's always a girl. Well, you take care with her, you hear? Soldiers and pilots are hard people to love. We're not home much, and most of us don't live to see old age. You'll learn that as you gain experience in the Army."

"I know." Korwin said, realizing that he was wearing his civvies, and probably looked like a fresh-faced young replacement.

This was proven to be correct a moment later, when the co-pilot said, "So how did a freshy pull a ten day furlough?"

It was Korwin's turn to laugh, and he said, "Boy, I ain't no freshy. I'm an old salty dog." He chuckled when the pilot and co-pilot both glanced back at him, surprise evident on their faces. "Corporal Korwin Nalan, K Company Recon, 3rd Battalion, 1st Light Infantry Regiment, 22nd Infantry Regular Division, 2nd Corps, 3rd Alliance Army."

"You're recon?" The pilot asked, his voice filled with skepticism.

"Yes sir. I'm a veteran of Gnazt and Tatooine. I'm an original member of my recon squad, and have been the squad leader since the inception of the Army Recon squads."

"No shit? You ever been wounded?" The co-pilot asked.

Korwin grinned, and said, "Many times. I've been shot through both calves, one by a blaster rifle, the other by a slugthrower, and took a blaster bolt through the left arm on my first mission on Gnazt and another in my back on Tatooine. I've been burned by a plasma grenade, shot in the shoulder and thigh by a heavy repeater, got caught in a sandstorm...haven't been stabbed, though, or peppered with shrapnel yet. That'd be new." He frowned momentarily, wondering what that would feel like. He'd managed to avoid ever getting stabbed in Tides. He was a very good fighter, and had fought more than one knife-wielding opponent. While he'd taken more than one slash across the forearm, he'd never actually been stabbed. He didn't imagine it'd feel too good.

The pilot shook his head, and said, "Damn son, how old are you?"

"Eighteen sir. Just turned this year."

"And you were on Gnazt?"

"Yes sir." Korwin replied.

The pilot shook his head again, and said, "Damn."

After almost two minutes of ensuing silence, the co-pilot looked back at Korwin, and said, "Aren't you the one that fell asleep in that bombing in Mos Espa, and some little girl saved you?"

* * *

Korwin strode through the busy spaceport, glad to be off the small ship that had brought him here. As soon as the co-pilot had brought up the incident in Mos Espa, Korwin had realized that things were bad. He'd heard someone mention something about that once in camp, and had put a quick end to that conversation. No one had ever brought it up around him after that. But to hear it from a pilot that flew a mail freighter; that was just humiliating, even if it wasn't true.

He hadn't fallen asleep. It had been a damn concussion, from the bombs exploding so close to him! He'd broken ribs too. Of course, once the rumor mill got going, there was no escaping the results. Despite all of his battlefield accomplishments, both those in the past and the ones he knew were to come, he'd go down in Alliance military history as the guy who fell asleep in the middle of an Imperial bombing raid. He was sure that being the most wounded man in the galaxy was a better legacy to leave than that. Not by much though.

Shaking his head at the irony of it all, he continued on his way through the spaceport, until he found a public vidphone near one of the large exits. Stopping next to it, he set down his duffel and he inserted his credit chip into the comm. He reached into a pocket and pulled out the small piece of paper that Eli had given him on his last visit, which held her comm code and her residential address. Punching in the numbers for her home comm unit, he waited for several seconds for someone to answer.

He heard a soft chime from the comm, and then a face he didn't recognize came on the small vidscreen. She looked like Eli, but perhaps was a few years younger, and had brown hair. _This must be Corle._ Korwin thought to himself. Corle was Eli's younger sister, whom he'd never met, but had been told of. Instead of answering in a customarily polite manner, she frowned and said, "I don't know you. I didn't give you the code at a party did I?"

Korwin laughed at the idea of being one of the pampered rich boys she probably hung out with, and shook his head. "Nah, girl. I'm calling for Eli." Assuming that Eli probably hadn't told her family much about the rebel soldier she'd met all those months ago, he said, "I met her a while back, and I was just looking to get in touch again."

Corle raised an eyebrow, and said acerbically, "You know, Eli has a boyfriend. They're probably going to get married someday. And he's a soldier, too, so I'd give it up if I were you."

"Well, why don't you ask who I am before you spoutin' off at the mouth?" He replied, his eyebrows creasing together in a dark, angry frown.

"Fine, who are you?" she asked, apparently unimpressed by the display. Korwin was impressed; most people wilted under his angry glares.

"My name is Korwin, and I'm here to see Eli." He answered, his features smoothing. He licked his lips, and waited for a response. He wasn't disappointed.

Corle's eyes grew huge, and she said, "Oh force, I'm so sorry!" She slapped a hand to her forehead, obviously upset with herself. Suddenly, her mood did an abrupt about face. "Wait a minute...you're here? As in, here in Theed?"

Korwin nodded. "I just touched down about fifteen minutes ago. I'm on furlough for ten days, so I thought I'd come see her."

Corle grinned brightly, and said, "I'm so sorry about that...my name's Corle, by the way. If you want to know where Eli is, she's in the middle of a test right now at university, but she'll be done in two hours." Her grin turned conspiratorial now, and she said, "If you want, I could come pick you up from the spaceport and take you over there. You could meet her outside the test hall. She'd love that."

Korwin smiled, anticipation plain on his face. "Sounds good. I'll meet you out front."

"Okay. It'll be about forty-five minutes." Corle said.

Korwin shrugged, and said, "That's fine. I ain't got nowhere else to be."

"Okay, see you then." The comm screen went blank.

Korwin picked up his duffel and slung it over his shoulder. A quick search turned up a small restaurant, in which he passed thirty minutes eating a dish of fasi and sipping a cup of strong, sweet caf. When he'd finished his meal, he meandered slowly to the front of the spaceport. It had been roughly forty-five minutes when he stepped outside, but he still waited another fifteen before he saw an open-topped luxury landspeeder pull up with Corle in the drivers seat. "You're late." Korwin said, his face stern. Punctuality was something he'd become quite accustomed to over the course of his time in the military; both from himself and from others.

She frowned, and said, "I got caught in traffic."

Resisting the urge to tell her that she should have taken traffic into account, Korwin instead said, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to jump on you like that." He sat down in the front passenger seat, and said, "It's habit. Everything is run on a pretty tight timeline in the army."

Corle smiled sweetly at him, and said, "It's okay. So, you look pretty young. She never told us how old you are."

He glanced at her, and then turned his gaze to the view out his side of the speeder, and said, "I'm eighteen. I was seventeen when we met."

"Are you kidding?" She asked, incredulous. "I'm seventeen!"

"That's nice." Korwin replied. "How long till we get to this university?"

"Oh, about half an hour." Corle replied. "So why did you join the rebellion?" she asked once they'd reached one of the few speedways in peaceful Theed.

Korwin shrugged. Not feeling any particular desire to divulge any great personal secrets to her, he answered, "Because I don't like the Empire."

"Oh." She cocked her head to the side, as if thinking deeply on what he'd said. Finally, she said, "I guess that makes sense. I don't like them either." Then she frowned cutely. "That doesn't mean I'm going to join the rebellion and get myself blown up though."

Korwin said, "I've never been blown up, and I've been in for a year and a half."

"You have to been blown up. Eli showed us that letter, the one where you told her about the grenade."

"Us? Who's us?" Korwin asked.

"Me, our Mom, our Dad." She grinned, and said, "My Dad used to work for the senatorial representatives in the Republic Senate, but he resigned when Palpatine took over. He's sympathetic to the Rebellion. You can't even imagine how excited he got when Eli told us about you. He was the only one who didn't get mad when she showed us the letter that you sent to tell her you were a liar, and that were getting all shot up. He thinks you're great, just because you're fighting the Empire." She turned to look at him, and said, "What's it feel like getting shot, by the way?"

"It hurts." Korwin said, turning to look out the side of the speeder again.

"Well, I figured that. What does it _feel_ like though? I mean, how much does it hurt, and like, what kind of hurt is it? Because there's different kinds of pain."

Korwin clenched his teeth tightly together, and breathed in deeply through his nose, fighting off the nigh overwhelming desire to ask her if she'd like him to show her. Although he'd refrained from wearing the blaster on his person, in favor of his vibrodagger sheathed on his belt, he never went anywhere outside the well-guarded Tatooine base camp without at least a little firepower. His blaster pistol was in his duffel, sitting in the backseat. He looked back at the duffel, and chuckled. Then he looked at Eli's little sister, and decided to give her a straight answer. And a graphic one. For each type of pain. Hopefully, he'd get a laugh out of this.

"You ever been burned before?" Korwin asked politely.

"Yeah, a few times." Replied Corle.

"Think of that pain, a really awful burn, and then imagine it going through you. Through your arm, your shoulder, your calf, your thigh. Like someone taking a sharp knife, and heating it up red-hot, and cutting a hole clean through you. After the bolt goes through, there's hardly any blood, because it was so hot that it cauterized the wound as it went. Next comes the smell of your flesh cooking, and if you look quickly enough, you'll see little wisps of smoke rising out of the wound." He smirked as her face paled, and she turned towards him, intending to respond. He held up a hand to cut her off, and said, "That's just the blaster bolts. Let me tell you about slugthrowers and plasma grenades, and sandstorms too."

She shook her head firmly, and said, "That's okay." She looked slightly ill, and studiously avoided his gaze for the rest of the ride. Better yet, she shut up.

When they arrived at the campus, she said, "Okay, I'll take you up there. Then I'm leaving. You'll have to fend for yourself after that."

"I think I'll be okay." Korwin replied, a wry grin on his face. "C'mon, let's get going." She led him into a large building that looked more like a huge temple, or palace, than what he'd think of as a University. The almost archaic architecture was as grand as the Royal Palace's, and there were richly dressed young people everywhere. Korwin began feeling very out of place. He'd never seen a place like this before, and realized that he was more out of his element than ever.

Turning to Corle, Korwin asked, "Are all the kids at this school rich?"

She shrugged nonchalantly, and said, "Yeah, pretty much the whole city is rich. There's really no poverty here. It's nice."

"I'll bet." Korwin looked around as they walked into one of the enormous buildings, it's ceilings supported by massive marble columns. The stonework in the building fascinated him, and he found himself paying careful attention to the details of the architecture and stonework as they walked up a long stairway to the third floor. He'd never seen anything like it in all his life, and he was taken in by the intricacy of some of the marble and gold scroll work along the walls and door mantels. By the time they'd reached the doorway to the testing hall that Eli was in, Korwin had realized that the stonework in this building far outstripped anything he'd seen in the public plazas and squares. He wondered briefly what the inside of the palace must look like.

Shaking his head at the difficulty of imagining what such opulence must look like, he said, "This it, then?"

Corle nodded and said, "Yes. She should be out soon." Flipping her long brown hair over her shoulder, she said, "I'll see you later. I've got some things to do, and you and Elise probably want to be alone anyway." She winked, and then turned and walked away.

Korwin dropped his duffel on the ground against the wall opposite the door to the test hall. Leaning against the wall, he slid down to sit on the duffel. He waited for almost ten minutes, before he heard a loud chime ring throughout the building. A few seconds later, students in their late teens and early twenties began filing out of the door. After the first nine or ten people had exited, he saw her. She walked through the door in the midst of a conversation with a friend of hers. She was oblivious to his presence, and followed her friend out the door, the two young women chatting busily.

"Eli!" He called out, picking up his duffel and slinging it over his shoulder. He'd caught her attention, sure enough, and a few other people's besides.

She stared at him for a moment, almost as if she didn't believe that she was actually seeing him, and then her eyes widened. "Korwin!" She ran to him, and threw herself forcefully into his arms. Korwin was taken by surprise by the force of her greeting, and was even more so when she grabbed his face and pulled his lips to hers. How long the kiss lasted, neither one knew. When it was over, Korwin straightened, and his face broke into a broad grin. He opened his mouth to say something, and then was promptly slapped across it. "That's for lying to me, laser-brains!" Eli whispered fiercely. "How could you think that I wouldn't worry anyway. And then to..." She gave up on words, and instead, grabbed him by the shoulders. Looking up at him, she said softly but firmly. "Don't do that again. Do you understand me?"

"Yes ma'am." He answered, falling back on the easiest method of avoiding conflict that he knew...following orders.

Eli laughed lightly, and said, "Good. Now, let's get out of here. We need to sit down and talk, and you need to tell me how you've been. You haven't written in a while." Turning to her friend, who was standing several feet away, grinning from ear to ear, she said, "I'll introduce you later Yasa. We've got some catching up to do."

"I'll bet." Her friend said with a saucy grin.

Eli led him away, and said, "So, shall we go to The Water Gardens?"

Korwin smiled, and said, "Sounds good to me." Looking her over, he said, "How you been?"

She linked her arm in his, and said, "I've been well. I'm only a few weeks away from finishing my degree in alien sociology, so I'm excited about that. But I'm more excited about having you here." Eli smiled happily up at him, and said, "How long do I have you for this time?"

"About eight days. I need another day or so for the trip back to Tatooine."

"I'm just glad that you're here." Eli said sincerely. "How did you get leave?"

Korwin shrugged his shoulders, and said, "Service records."

"What does that mean?" Eli asked, clearly not understanding.

Korwin said, "Service records. Who has provided the most effective service, with the most efficiency." He grinned, and said, "Getting shot a lot helps too."

Eli slapped him on the shoulder, and said, "Seriously, what are the service records?"

"Well, for the recon squads, it's basically a list of statistics and numbers. It's like a progression of stats. It runs kind of like this...how many patrols each team member has run comes first. In our case, we've all been together since the beginning, so we've run a shitload of patrols." Korwin said, unheeding of the disapproving frown his language elicited from his love. "The only newer member is our medic, but I think that Cap was giving me a break by sending him on leave too.

"After that, it comes to how many of those patrols we've successfully concluded after meeting all primary mission objectives. Next, is how many patrols we've run where we've sighted the enemy. For us, it's been roughly eighty-eight percent. After that, is how many patrols have produced contact - that's another word for combat - with the enemy." He thought for a moment, and said, "For my squad, we have contact with the enemy on about seventy-three percent of the missions that we have sightings."

"Is that a lot?"

"I guess so." He shrugged. "Anyway, next is enemy BC. My squad is highest rated in that area."

"What's BC?" asked Eli.

Korwin sighed, not really wanting to tell her this. He did so anyway. "Body count."

"Body count?" Her voice was soft, and she sounded faintly disturbed by the idea. "You mean, how many you've..." she lowered her voice to a whisper, and continued, "how many you've killed?"

He nodded, not looking at her. "Yeah."

"And you guys have the most?"

He nodded again, still not meeting her gaze. "Yeah."

"What else?" she asked, surprising him by not immediately pulling away after the somewhat disturbing revelation.

"How many times we've been wounded, and how many squad members we've lost." Korwin replied. "We've lost one, our first medic. He died of wounds from a Tusken slugthrower out in the Northern Dune Sea. All of us have been wounded more than once though."

"Have you been wounded again since I saw you?" Eli asked, worry evident in her features.

"A few times. Nothing really bad though."

She sighed, and shook her head. "Well, you're here now. You can tell me about everything when we get to the Inn." They made small talk for the rest of the walk off campus, and throughout the speeder taxi ride to the square that the Inn was in. When they arrived, Eli squealed with delight, and exclaimed, "Our table is open!"

"Our table?" Korwin looked around, not comprehending her meaning.

Eli rolled her eyes, and said, "The one we sat at the first time we met. You remember, right?" She asked, and then said, "Over there?" pointing to the table in question.

He nodded his head as he instantly recalled the evening they'd spent sitting there talking, and said, "Oh, right. Our table." They made their way over to sit down, and a few minutes later, a young waitress came out and gave them menus and small cups of caf. As they were perusing the menu items, Eli said, "So Korwin...tell me about the war. What you really do. You didn't say too much in the letters."

Korwin sighed, knowing that this was a direct result of the lie he'd told. He said, "Okay." He pulled a pack of deathsticks from his pocket, and was about to pull one out, when Eli shook her head disapprovingly and waggled her finger at him.

"You can't smoke those here." She said sternly.

He rolled his eyes and put the pack of smokes back in his pocket. Taking a sip of the caf that the waitress had brought, he said, "When we met, I was still regular infantry. I was, and still am, a member of Krayt Company, 3rd Battalion, 1st Light Infantry Regiment, etc. etc." Taking a deep breath, he continued on. "Before I was here, I was on Gnazt, like I said in the letter. That's where I got the blaster wound in arm, and the plasma burns on my back. After I left here, we went to Tatooine. I've been there ever since. After a few weeks on planet, High Command made the decision to start recon units. My CO tapped me to be the squad leader of K Company recon. That's what I've been doing ever since."

"What about your other wounds?" She asked, sipping her caf.

He shrugged noncommittally, and said, "Later. Let's eat first."

She nodded her head, and the rest of their mealtime was filled with pleasant conversation. After they'd finished eating, they went inside and booked a room for the evening. When they got there, Eli commed her parents to let them know where she was, and then turned to Korwin. "So, your wounds?" He opened his mouth to speak, but she said, "Show me."

He nodded slowly, and began disrobing, stopping when he was in nothing but his sand-colored army issue boxers. She sat down on the bed, and gestured for him to sit with her. "Start with the first one after Gnazt."

He lifted his right leg up, and pointed to a scar on his calf. "We landed outside of Mos Espa, and attacked it that night. I got shot here during combat in the streets." Lowering his leg, he said, "Later that night, I got hit in the right thigh and shoulder," He pointed to each scar in turn, both larger than the other blaster wounds, "by a heavy repeating blaster rifle. That's a heavy blaster that requires a tripod to support it's weight while being operated. It's too heavy to fire from the hip, or to raise to your shoulder."

Eli traced the slender fingers of her right hand over the scars the repeater had left, and looked into Korwin's eyes. "What else?" she asked, her voice soft.

"I was caught in the concussive blast radius of a plasma bomb during an Imperial bombing raid, and got a nasty concussion and a few broken ribs." Pointing to his left calf, he brought her attention to a large, purple, jagged-edged scar. "This is from a Tusken Raider's slugthrower." Turning away from her, he ran hand over the skin of his upper left back, his left shoulder, and the back of his left arm. "This is all synthflesh, from a sandstorm. It took all of the skin off."

Leaning forward slightly, he said, "The one on the left side of my lower back is another blaster rifle wound. It destroyed a small nerve cluster, and I would have lost the use of my left leg, but the Navy surgeons up on the hospital ship replaced it with a tiny robotic nerve cluster. Works on the same principle as mechanical prosthetics." He turned to face her again, and ran a hand over his cornrows nervously. "That's really the last serious one."

Eli looked at him sadly, her eyes glistening with unshed tears, and said, "Are you going to get out of this in one piece, Kory?" The affectionate shortening of his name stirred emotions he hadn't felt in a long time. The only other people who called him that were his mother, brother and sister.

Korwin suddenly found it difficult to speak around the large lump forming in his throat, but he forced himself to get his next words out. "I will, I promise. And when it's all said and done, I'll be here with you. I'll be here forever." She smiled at him, and leaned into him, her arms going around his torso and squeezing tightly. He returned the embrace, and buried his nose in Eli's thick auburn hair. He breathed deeply of her vanilla and cinnamon scented locks, and kissed the top of her head. "Things'll be good someday. You'll see. This war will end, the Empire will be gone, and I'll be here with you."

Eli pulled back slightly, and said, "Promise me again."

"I promise." Korwin said, his gaze intense. After a moment, his expression softened, and he said, "I'm going to bring my family here too. My mom, and my little brother and sister."

"I'd like that. I'd love to meet them." Eli said, her dazzling smile taking Korwin's breath away.

Korwin matched her smile with one of his own, and said, "You will." He dipped his head down, and kissed her gently, reveling in the velvety soft feel of her lips against his. After a few moments, he deepened the kiss, their tongues entwining as their ardor rose to new heights.

Eli pulled back, and began removing her own clothing, Korwin helping her along whenever he could. Nabooan womens clothing was incredibly complex by his standards, and he didn't understand why they wore so much of it. When she was finally undressed completely, Korwin slid his boxer's off and gently pushed her back on the bed. Leaning over her, he looked into her smoldering green eyes and said, "I love you."

"I love you too." Eli whispered back. Their lips met again, and they began a long night of lovemaking; passionate and almost frenzied at first, and then slow, gentle and loving at the end. When finally they'd expended their reserves of energy, Eli lied down on her side and pushed back into Korwin's embrace.

Korwin smiled lazily as he wrapped his arms around his lover's petite frame. Kissing her bare shoulder, he whispered, "I love you Eli. Sleep good."

"I love you too, Kory. Good night." Eli fell asleep almost immediately, but Korwin lied awake for almost an hour afterward, basking in the warm feeling that Eli's presence elicited in him. When sleep finally took him, it was a deep, peaceful sleep that he fell into. His dreams, for the first time in many long months, were filled with visions of hope for the future, instead of the ghosts of the recent past whom he'd yet to mourn.

* * *

"It was the start of one of the most wonderful points in my life. The days that I spent with Eli on Naboo completely rejuvenated me, physically, emotionally and mentally. I have so many good memories from that furlough." Korwin said wistfully, his eyes distant, his voice filled with a deep, nostalgic longing.

Laina smiled softly, and said, "Well, why don't you tell me more after lunch."

Korwin blew out a long breath, and said, "I think that sounds like a fair idea, young lady. After lunch then."

When Korwin had left, Laina looked around at the crew. "Alderaani delivery? I'm paying." Receiving a chorus of affirmatives, Laina pulled out her personal comlink and set about ordering lunch for her crew. A full belly always helped keep the mind sharp, after all.


	25. Soldier 20

Had to re-post this chapter because is deleting spaces in my sentences, creating these weird run-on words. Hopefully this fixes it. Once again, please take a couple minutes of your time to post a review. They're very helpful in the writing process.

Thanks to ConstantineXI for a couple of very helpful reviews that reminded me of some loose ends in the plot, and to Black Scorpion for a good critique of the earlier chapters. Hopefully I'll see a few moresoon. Thanks for reading. On with the story.

* * *

Korwin settled into his seat, his belly full and a smile on his face. "Okay then, I'm ready."

Laina returned the smile, and said, "Good. Why don't we continue with your furlough to Theed."

"Sounds good. After that first night there, Eli and I toured around the city a little bit, doing this and that, you know? Eventually, she decided that it would be a good idea to take me to her home and introduce me to her parents, so that's what we did."

"And how was that? Did you feel comfortable doing that?" Laina asked, her writing stylus poised over her datapad's touch screen.

"You know, it wasn't bad. Her father really _was_ a big fan. It was kind of flattering actually."

* * *

"Kory, this is my mother, Karia." said Eli, gesturing to a beautiful, middle-aged woman with long auburn hair. She was taller than Eli, though not by much, and wore much the same style of elegant, gossamer gowns in the warm spring air. She was seated at a low table on the large back patio of their palatial (at least to Korwin) house. Pointing to a short, wiry man with graying dark brown hair, she said, "This is my father, Verus." Smiling prettily, she said, "I believe you've already met Corle."

Korwin shook each of her parents hands, and said, "It's nice to meet both of you."

Karia said, "Why thank you dear, it's a pleasure to meet you too."

"Yes, why don't you sit down?" Asked Verus, gesturing to an empty chair. "Would you like something to drink?"

"Sure." Korwin replied, feeling a bit unsure of himself.

Turning to his youngest daughter, Verus said, "Corle, why don't you go in and get Korwin and Eli a glass of tea." His youngest daughter stood obediently and went inside to get the requested beverages.

Korwin seated himself gratefully, and said, "Thanks." He glanced over at Eli, who sat down beside him and took his hand, and then back to Eli's parents. Not being quite sure what to say, and never having been particularly good with parents, he said the first thing that came to mind. "Well, ya'll do good work together." He looked meaningfully at Eli, causing her to blush.

"Kory! Stop that!" She whispered, a little too loudly.

Her father chuckled, and said, "It's alright dear, no offense taken." Korwin swallowed uncomfortably, realizing that perhaps he shouldn't have said that. Verus turned his gaze on Korwin, and said, "So, Korwin. How are things at the front? Where are you stationed exactly? Eli didn't tell us that."

Korwin fought off a wave of suspicion, and forced himself to remember that this guy wasn't some Imperial agent trying to sniff out rebels. Besides, they wouldn't bother with him anyway. They only worried about finding one thing, and that was high command. They knew perfectly well where the various Alliance Armies and Naval forces were fighting. After a moment's hesitation, he said, "I'm fighting on Tatooine right now, sir."

The old man's eyes opened a bit larger, and he said, "We've seen holonews reports about some of the fighting on Tatooine. I hear it's bad."

Korwin nodded his head, and said, "Yeah, it's getting ugly. I'm not getting it as bad as the infantry though. I'm a Larry."

All of the people present looked at him with confusion, and Karia said, "I'm sorry, but I don't understand."

Korwin chuckled, and said, "I'm a specialized soldier, not just an infantryman. I'm the squad leader of a five troop combat reconnaissance squad called an LRIS. The initials stand for Long Range Intelligence Squad, but the abbreviation is pronounced Larry's. So that's what everyone else started calling us."

Everyone nodded their understanding, and Verus said, "I've heard a bit about the LRIS'. I have a few friends who are...in contact. I make donations every now and then, and they keep me abreast of what's going on. What is it you do exactly."

Korwin waved his right hand dismissively. "This and that. We mostly do long range reconnaissance patrols in enemy territory. Occasionally we'll conduct ambushes. That kind of thing." Corle returned with the drinks and set them down in front of Korwin and her sister. "Thanks." said Korwin, as he raised the glass to his lips and drank. It was iced, which was pleasant, and he found that it had a flavor that was simultaneously sweet and tangy. It was almost like a citrus tea, but there was a hint of spice in the aftertaste that he couldn't place. Nonetheless, it was quite good. After drinking a few sips, Korwin set the glass down.

Eli smiled at him, and then said, "So why don't you tell them where you're from?"

Verus and Karia looked at him curiously, and Korwin said, "I was born and raised on Juno IV, in Celka City."

Karia's eyes lit up, and she said, "My father was born there! He came here very shortly before he met my mother." Happy to have finally met someone who knew the place, she said, "He used to take me there with my Uncle to go visit my grandparents in Celka City, back when I was a little girl. What part of the city are you from?"

Korwin shifted uncomfortably, and frowned. He grabbed his glass and took a long swig from it. As he set it down, Eli nudged him in the ribs, leaned into him, and whispered, "It's fine."

He cleared his throat quietly, and then said, "Tides."

Verus didn't seem to understand the connotations of that word, but it was plain to see that Karia certainly did. Realization dawned on her immediately, and her next words were, "What did you do there, before the war, if you don't mind my asking?"

Korwin now knew that he had put himself between a rock and a hard place. If he told the truth about his gang background, even Eli might be upset. It was something he'd yet to tell her. He couldn't see her parents being particularly pleased either. Then again, if he lied, he'd have to fess up eventually if he ever wanted to really...settle down with this girl. Deciding that Captain Borlin's old advice to always be truthful with his woman was probably correct, he uttered a soft sigh, and said, "I was a gang member."

Eli's head swiveled so fast that her hair whipped him in the face. Surprisingly, her mother seemed to take it in stride, albeit with a bit of strain on her good humor, while her father merely looked thoughtful for a moment and then shrugged. Eli said, "You never told me that!"

Karia looked as though she were about to intervene, when Verus said, "Dear, don't you think it's about time to start preparing supper? Come on, I'll help." He stood up and left the table in a hurry, his wife following on his heels, seeming flustered at the mere suggestion of him helping her. Corle lingered a moment longer, her pretty face betraying her curiosity, before her father called, "Corle, you can set the table and get out the good tablecloth...and go into the cellar and pull out the Karindian silver...the ten year old, not the fifty!"

Corle sighed, and said, "Have fun you two." She walked inside, tossing a glance over her shoulder at the couple.

When they were finally alone, Eli said, "Why didn't you tell me that?"

"Well, because, you know...I don't know, okay?" Korwin shrugged. "It didn't seem that important."

"It didn't seem that important?" Eli demanded hotly, turning in her seat to face him head on.

"No. Not with-"

"Not with what?" She interrupted.

"Not with the fuckin' war!" He snapped at her. "It didn't seem that important with the war, okay?" He slammed down the rest of his tea, and then put the glass on the table in front of him. Standing up, he said, "I'm gonna go for a walk."

As he turned away, he felt a hand on his arm. "Wait...I'm sorry." He stopped, and looked at Eli. "It's just...did you really think something that wouldn't be important?" she asked, her voice soft.

Korwin sat down again, and said, "I didn't mean to snap like that. And I guess it really didn't. I mean, with all the shit going through my head, between the war, and you, and my family back home...I just never thought about it. I'm sorry, I should have told you."

"Forgiven." Eli said with a smile. Giving him a brief kiss, she said, "Why don't we go inside and sit down?"

"Fine by me."

* * *

"The rest of the evening was pretty relaxed. We had dinner, which was nice. It was my first real introduction to home-cooked Nabooan food, and I was hooked from the word go. After eating, we all talked for a while about this and that, and then Eli and I headed to the inn to check me out and get my belongings. I ended up just staying with the Orlane's for the rest of my leave. It was all pretty relaxed, and they managed to avoid asking anything that would have been too forward of them. We talked about my family, and I told them about some of my friends in the unit...although none of the action, really. It just wasn't something I was comfortable talking about at that time."

"I understand...so what did you spend your time doing?" Laina asked.

Korwin chuckled, and said, "I probably slept for...oh, close to nine hours a night, which was unheard of on Tatooine. Then I'd sit around and do nothing for a few hours after waking up, before Eli and I went out for the day. I got to see a great deal more of the city than I did the last time, and I met a few more of her close friends. It was a good time."

"After being there and leaving once, and experiencing what you had between those two furlough's, how hard was it for you to leave again?" queried Laina, her head tilted inquisitively.

"It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I guess that when it really came down to it, I just wasn't ready to leave my squad. I wanted very much to be with Eli, and to make a life with her on Naboo...just not right at the moment, you know?" He chuckled, and a few others around the room did as well. "I had different priorities at the time. I loved Eli deeply, even then, but I think that I loved my squad more. Honestly, if she'd asked me to choose, I probably would have chosen Recon over Eli." He looked directly at the holocamera, and said, "I'm sorry baby, I know I done put my foot in it this time."

Another wave of laughter passed through the room, and Laina said, "Why don't you tell me a bit about that last day?"

"Eli and I spent most of the last day walking around the city, seeing the sights that I'd missed the last time around. When we were done, we went back to her house to spend another evening with her family. Her mother made another lovely dinner for us, and then we spent the rest of the evening looking at some of the holo's that I'd brought of the Tatooine base camp and some of the soldiers there. I remember the favorites were a pair of holo's that Corle picked out. One of them was the five of us - my squad that is - relaxing outside the mess tent on a pile of crates. It was taken a couple days before the ambush in the desert. We were in our fatigue pants, bare feet, and nothing else...well, Kreth had a tanktop."

Korwin took a sip of his water, and said, "The next one she grabbed out was a picture of us in combat readiness. It was taken at night, in front of the box we were about to get on for a ride to our AOO. It was before the fatigues came in of course, so we were in combat jumpsuits and bush hats, unmarked, with full harnesses, packs and ammunition pockets. We were armed to the teeth, like any good recon patrol is, and we were all done up with our greasepaint camo. The thing that Corle liked was the contrast between the two.

"In the first one, we were all clean, no weapons, sitting around in the middle of day with big smiles on our faces. In the second, we were in our combat uniforms in the dark of night, with grenades and blaster packs all over our chests, knives at our backs, blaster rifles, blaster pistols...Kierse had a blaster cannon strapped on the top of his pack, and Avery was carrying a plasma shotgun, with his blaster carbine on a sling over his shoulder. Not one of us was smiling in that holo. Everyone had that same hard-eyed combat stare." He blew out a breath, and said, "I remember that Eli was fascinated with that last one as well, as well as a bit disturbed by it."

Laina nodded, and said, "I can imagine."

"So, the next day, I packed up, we headed off to the spaceport, and I said my goodbyes to her family. This time, I promised that I'd be back when the war was over, and that I'd stay with her there. Still not engaged, but there was a commitment to something deeper." Korwin said wistfully.

* * *

"I love you Kory." Eli said, standing on her toes to kiss Korwin on the lips.

When the kiss ended, Korwin smiled at her, and said, "I love you too baby. I'll write soon, okay?"

"Okay." She kissed him again, and then stepped away, towards her waiting family.

It was the same ship that he'd come in on, and the co-pilot stood on the open loading ramp and called, "Let's go Magic! We're out of here in five, and we've gotta get everything secured and ready to go."

Deciding not to ask how they'd discovered his nickname, Korwin tossed one last wave to Eli and her family and walked up the ramp. "Let's move out." He said with a grin.

The co-pilot followed him inside the ship and closed the ramp. "How was furlough Corporal?" He asked with a suggestive smile.

Korwin licked his lips slowly, then smiled lazily, and drawled, "It was laid-back...nice, you know?"

The co-pilot grinned, and said, "Yeah, I know." Korwin followed him to the cockpit and watched as he and the pilot went through their final pre-flight checklist.

In no time, they were airborne, and a short time later they'd passed through the upper atmosphere and into the deep, dark void of space. Korwin watched until they passed into hyperspace, and then wandered back to the hold and pulled the small holoframe that Eli had given him his fifth day there out of his duffel. Turning it one, he was greeted by Eli's smiling face. It was a picture they'd taken outside the palace. He'd taken a guided tour with her and a small group of tourists, and had loved every minute of it. By the time he and Eli had left, he'd decided that he would go into architecture and construction when he left the Army. He wasn't sure exactly how to go about doing it, but do it he would.

After turning the holoframe off and tucking it back into his duffel, he laid down, head on his back, and closed his eyes. He slept for most of the relatively short ride to Tatooine, waking up periodically before forcing himself into unconsciousness again. When they finally arrived in system, Korwin woke up and rode the rest of the way in the cockpit. After transferring to a smaller shuttle onboard one of the battleships in orbit around Tatooine, he was flown down to the base camp that the 1st Light Infantry regiment shared with the rest of the 22nd Infantry Regular Division.

He stepped into the blistering midday heat, and headed straight for his tent. After changing into his fatigues, he pulled his combat boots on and headed to the Company CP to check in with Captain Borlin.He tossed a quick salute to the Sergeants standing MP duty outside his tent, and then stepped inside. The Captain looked up from a pile of after action reports he was going over, and he smiled at Korwin. "Ah, Corporal Nalan...good to have you back. How was leave?"

"It was good sir."

"Excellent. Well, I know that none of your squad has arrived back yet...you're the first on the ground at least." He reached over to the corner of his desk and picked up a datadisc. He tossed it to Korwin and said, "Read up on that. You guys have an op tomorrow morning. I'll warn you right now that it's not gonna be a fun one."

Korwin raised an eyebrow and said, "What are we doing, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Bomb damage assessment."

"You're fucking shittin' me, right?" Korwin asked.

"Nope. We've been bombing the shit out of the canyon for two days now, and the Y-wings are making a final pass tonight. You guys are going in four hours later to check the damage to the enemy positions in the Jundland wastes."

Korwin shook his head, and said, "Couldn't the Navy just fly some fighters over?"

Borlin shook his head. "That's a negative. We need to know what's been accomplished exactly, and it's impossible to properly assess damage from the air. You can't see tunnel systems that have been collapsed, you can't see enemy dead, or destroyed equipment that's hidden underneath outcroppings, or has been blown into small pieces." He put his feet up on his desk and leaned back in his chair. "So we need you guys to go in."

Korwin pocketed the datadisc and said, "Was there anything else sir?"

"Nothing. Dismissed."

Korwin saluted his CO and left his tent, heading for his own. When he got there, he found Avery sitting on his cot, dressing in his fatigues. Avery glanced up, and said, "What up big man?"

"Not a lot. Go check in with Borlin, and make sure you're around camp when you're done. We've got an op early tomorrow morning."

Avery laced up his boots, and then stood up, "Yessir...you know me...Doc Azen, always reliable." He laughed as he walked past his friend, and Korwin shook his head and chuckled. All joking aside, Avery was one of the most reliable soldiers he'd seen under fire. And although he'd run a couple missions badly hungover at the start, he'd never actually been drunk. Korwin was okay with that. He'd run an op or two himself fairly hungover.

Removing his datapad from the lightweight fieldpack next to his bed, he turned it on and inserted the datadisc that Borlin had given him. As he read over the mission details, he found himself shaking his head in disbelief at what he was reading. _Expect possible heavy resistance near cave entrances...enter all caves marked out on the satellite map and check for hostile presence...Canyon LZ expected to be cold. _Rolling his eyes at the last, he thought to himself, _At least we have that._

He greeted his incoming squadmates briefly as they arrived, but kept his focus on his work, murmuring only the barest explanations and warning them to stick nearby and keep their comlinks handy. After nearly three hours of reading, he finished, and began going over the few aerial recon holos they had. Each one had been taken from the lower atmosphere, just out of range of the short-wave ground-to-air radar that was all the Imps supposedly had left after the repeated bombings.

After finishing up, he called all his squadmates and told them to meet him near the firing range. He made the fifteen minute walk alone, and found everyone else already assembled at the top of a small dune that ran nearly the length of the range. Haslin spoke up first. "So what's going on boss?"

"We have an operation to run tomorrow morning at 0300. The mission objective is bomb damage assessment."

"What the fuck is that?" Avery asked loudly, his face twisted in a grimace of displeasure at the sound of the mission.

"Exactly what you're probably thinking." He held up his datapad, and said, "We're going to assess bomb damage. They've been running squadrons of Y-wings over the Jundland Wastes and the Xelric Draw for a few days and nights now. Tonight is the last bombing run the Navy does. The attack will begin at 2300 hours tonight. We'll go in four hours later at 0300 to see if they got anything useful. We'll be looking for Body Count, damaged and destroyed equipment, and collapsed access tunnels and caves." Handing the datapad to Kreth, he said, "Kreth take a look at the holo's. Everyone else, gather around her.

"What you're looking at in the first one is an aerial grid map of the section of the Jundland Wastes we'll be operating in. Aside from the incidentals I just mentioned, we're going to be specifically checking out each cave that is marked on that map." When they'd finished going over the holo's, he said, "We need to expect heavy resistance around cave entrances, where possible survivors could be gathered, and if we find any hostiles in any of the caves we enter, we're to clear them out."

Kreth looked up at him, and said, "Magic, this just sounds stupid. We know they're going to be crawling out of the woodwork."

Kierse looked at her, and said, "Don't tell me you're going soft on us now, Kreth."

"I'm not going soft, you laser-brained nerf-herder, I'm going sensible." Looking back at Korwin, she said, "Seriously, they really want us to do this?"

Korwin nodded his head, his expression firm. "They really want us to do this. So we're going to do it."

Haslin grinned, and said, "Don't you worry about a thing Kreth. We'll have your back."

"Gee, thanks." she muttered, drawing a chuckle from the entire squad.

"Okay," Korwin said, "we're going to take a few hours to rest, and then we're getting up at 2000 hours to start planning this out. We don't have much time, so we have to make it count. Understand?" Everyone nodded their heads, and he said, "Let's go get some sleep. We'll need it."

* * *

Korwin sat on his cot in full combat gear, his fieldpack sitting next him on the ground. The sleeves of his fatigue top were rolled up above his elbows, and he had just finished applying the finishing touches to the greasepaint on his hands and arms, and was starting on his neck and face. Avery sat across from him, applying the last bits of the light brown greasepaint to the top of his bald head. When he was done, he picked up his bush hat and put it on. Grabbing his plasma shotgun, which he'd chosen for the high likelihood of close combat on this op, he stood up and said, "See you at the box Magic." He slung his field pack over his shoulder and nestled his shotgun in the crook of his arm, walking out of the tent.

Korwin continued applying greasepaint, until he was satisfied that he'd covered everything. Smearing a bit of lighter brown greasepaint into the parts of his hair that would show under his bush hat, he then settled said headgear on his head and grabbed his gear. He walked at quick clip towards the waiting black box, and arrived just in time to hop on board. He was the last one on, and he shouted up to the pilot that they were ready. The box lifted off, carrying the small squad of soldiers to their Area of Operation.

As they passed over the edge of the Jundland wastes some fifteen minutes later, Korwin surveyed the damage of bombings in days past. The sound of the previous night's bombing had been terrific even from nearly sixty miles away. It had lasted for nearly an hour, the powerful plasma bombs that the Y-wings were dropping lighting up the night sky above the winding canyons and plateau's of the Wastes.

As the box approached the LZ, Korwin checked his blaster rifle to make sure that everything was functioning properly. They'd had precious little time to test-fire their weapons before gearing up, but they'd managed it anyway. The box came to a hovering stop nearly five feet off the ground, and Korwin pushed himself off the edge, landing lightly on the ground below despite the gear and pack that he carried. Once his small squad was assembled around him, the box lifted off and jetted off towards the base camp.

Using hand signals, Korwin ordered his squad to the shelter of a large overhang in the canyon wall some sixty yards away. There they remained, completely still, for nearly fifteen minutes. Finally, Korwin began inching out of the hide. After checking to make sure everything was clear, he waved his squad out as well. Signalling for Kreth to take point, he waved his hand forward in the signal to move out.

They hadn't gone more than thirty feet when a deafening_ BANG_ rang out in the canyon. Korwin heard a soft moan behind him, and a body hitting the ground. A moment later, blaster fire and lead began pouring in from all around. Korwin felt a burning pain on his left flank, and returned fire at what looked like a tan rock firing a slugthrower rifle at him. He struck his target, and the thing toppled from behind the scant cover it had been using...revealing itself to be an Imperial Commando. He heard Avery shout, "Haslin's down, Haslin's down!"

Korwin saw Kreth and Kierse hurriedly backing towards their original position of cover, and a pile of toppled boulder's nearby. He risked a quick glance behind him, and saw Avery dragging Haslin to the same pile of rocks. Haslin was clutching at wound in his lower abdomen, blood welling up quickly between his fingers and soaking the front and sides of his fatigues and combat harness. "Give them some cover, dammit!" he shouted.

Turning his attention back to the enemy, he picked out several other Commando's who were running from cover to cover, firing at them. Stepping into their fields of fire, he switched his firing mode to full automatic and sprayed the canyon ahead with red energy. A hail of fire returned his way, and he felt another searing pain flair in his left hip. He was satisfied to note, as he retreated expediently to the cover of the boulders, that he'd left three of the bastards lying still on the canyon floor.

Once all of them were behind the rocks, they took up positions from which they could fire on the slowly advancing enemy. Kierse took a moment to call for an emergency extraction, and fairly begged for an additional box to provide cover fire for them as they lifted off. They were pinned down by a withering hail of enemy fire, and Korwin felt the icy grip of fear take hold of his heart and squeeze. He continued firing, and then noticed a small, round object hurtling towards them. "Grenade!" he shouted, and everyone dove to the ground.

The grenade landed right next to him, and he gave off a choked yell. Thinking quickly, he grabbed the grenade and hurled it back the way it had come and then dropped flat. It exploded a second later, and he felt the sting of a piece of shrapnel creasing the flesh of his back. Luckily, it wasn't more than a deep scratch. He could feel it. Popping to his knees, he grabbed his own grenade off his harness, primed it, and hurled it at four approaching Imps. They noticed it too late, but Korwin was suddenly stunned into a moment of stillness as he watched one of them shove a comrade out of the way and dive on the grenade.

It exploded, killing him instantly, but he'd saved his three compatriates, who quickly retreated under the covering fire of a few remaining Commando's. Korwin realized as he began trading fire with them again, that they were almost as few as his own squad, and hadn't outnumbered them much to begin with. The thought provided no comfort for him, and he forced it out of his mind and ducked behind a boulder as a slugthrower's shot rang out again. The ground where he'd just been standing kicked up a puff of dust, and a divet appeared in the hard-packed dirt.

Removing another grenade from his harness, Korwin hurled it over the rock pile and hunkered down, waiting for the explosion. It didn't come...he peeked over his cover to see his grenade sitting impotently in the dirt, clearly not exploding. A third shot rang out from the slugthrower as Avery exposed himself for a moment while pulling a large bandage out of his fieldpack, and Avery slowly slumped over on top of Haslin, a bloody hole pumping life-fluid steadily out of his back. "Avery!" Korwin shouted.

He glanced quickly to the overhang, and yelled, "Fall back! Fall back!" He grabbed hold of Avery, and was nearly pushed backward as Avery pushed himself to his hands and knees of his own accord. Korwin watched as his badly wounded friend grabbed hold of Haslin and, heedless of his own wounds or safety, stood in the line of fire and began dragging him to the overhang. Korwin stepped in front of them, firing as he slowly retreated backward. "Kierse, Kreth, go now!"

Kierse peeled away from their cover first, running back behind Korwin, near the overhang, and taking up a firing position on one knee. He began sending streams of fire towards the Commando's, dropping one of them, and sending the rest scurrying for cover again. Kreth went next, lining up near Kierse and sending her own hail of blaster bolts at the enemy. Korwin then turned and sprinted for his friends. As he reached them, their black box shot past overhead, banking around to allow the starboard door gunner a shot at the Commando's on the ground. A moment later, Korwin's earpiece crackled to life with the voice of Captain Borlin. "Larry 3-K, you there?"

Korwin ducked behind his friends, and grabbed his comlink with one hand. Sending a stream of fire towards the enemy, he shouted, "Here sir! We're retreating and we'-" A shot rang out from behind him, and he jumped, startled, looking behind him. Up on top of the canyon wall, standing on the plateau, were several Commando's, lying prone and firing on them. "Check that, sir! We are surrounded! We've made heavy contact with Imperial Commando's and we are pinned down! Requesting immediate gunship support sir!"

"That's a copy 3-K. Your transportation should be in the vicinity now, and we have two gunships en route, ETA twenty-five minutes."

"Twenty-five minutes? I can't wait that damn long! My sniper is gutshot with a slugthrower! He'll fucking bleed out!" Korwin screamed into the comlink, anger welling up inside him like fire. He and his comrades dashed to another pile of boulders directly next to the overhang. It provided excellent cover from the guys up top, but only a small amount from the oncoming Commando's in the Canyon. Their advance was slow but sure,and they didn't seem particularly worried about ammo. Korwin gave a silent cheer as the black box blasted two Commando's, and then shouted into the comlink, "Can they get here faster?"

Borlin's only response was, "I'll get on em'...now you hang tight, soldier, and keep your godsdamned head about you! Understand?"

"Yes sir! Out!"

"Out."

Korwin clipped his comlink on his harness, and fired a few rounds at the enemy. He held his breath in anticipation as the black box came around for another pass, and found himself horror-stricken as a Commando carrying a blaster cannon dropped to one knee and fired a round off at the black box. The ball of plasma struck the machine directly in the cockpit, and it flew straight into the canyon behind the Imps, exploding into a great cloud of fire and debris when it struck. The commando turned his blaster canyon towards the rebel recon squad's place of cover, but Kreth sent a trio of bolts into his chest, knocking him dead before he could fire.

Korwin looked to Avery, whose normally dark skin was beginning to look ashen and grey. Despite his obvious pain and bloodloss, he was diligently working on a badly wounded Pvt. Haslin. Haslin was staring at Korwin, a smile on his face, and he gave him the thumbs up sign. Korwin smiled faintly, and returned the gesture. "It's gonna be okay, Has. We're gonna get you out of here!"

"I know boss." Haslin replied, just loud enough to be heard over the sounds of battle. Korwin shot down another Commando, and then another. He was looking for his third target, when the Imps suddenly stopped firing and began retreating into the canyon. He looked around, instantly suspicious. A moment later, his earpiece opened spoke.

"Larry 3-K, this is Big K. Find a cave, and find one now! Reconnaissance troops are tops on the Imp's shitlist on this dustbowl, and they've got a flight of TIE bombers inbound. Calling for immediate air support."

"Copy that!" Korwin turned to his squadmates and shouted, "Under the overhang, now! TIE bomber's inbound!" They quickly squeezed under the overhang they'd first waited under, trying to avoid ambush. _And that certainly went well._ Korwin thought bitterly. He looked over at Haslin, and his stomach lurched. His skin was alabaster-white, and his eyes were half-closed. Blood saturated every inch of the front of his fatigues, and his hands were covered in the stuff.Avery was staring at Korwin, tears in his eyes. "Haslin, open your eyes up." Korwin said.

Haslin's eyelids fluttered open, and he looked over at Korwin. "S-sor...sorry boss. I fucked up."

Korwin choked back the lump in his throat, and said, "Sithspit, man...you didn't fuck nothing up Has. You keep them eyes open, you hear? We're all gonna be just fine." He spoke with a calm assurance that he did not feel, and he knew as he met the eyes of each of his squad members, that none of them felt it either. None of them but Haslin.

"It's okay boss." His voice was a hoarse whisper now, and his breathing was ragged and shallow. "I know we're okay. We got Magic on our side." He grinned, and then choked violently, a bloody bubble welling up in his mouth.

"Haslin, don't do this! Hang on!" Kreth cried, tears rolling down her face. The sound of Twin Ion Engines began to echo through the canyon walls, and she crawled over to Haslin. "Keep your eyes open, listen to Magic!"

"I..s-sor-" Haslin tried to speak again, but blood was seeping up into his mouth. He choked, and began coughing hard, spraying blood on Korwin's and Kreth's faces. He convulsed once, and gave another sobbing cough.

Korwin grabbed hold of him and pulled him close, wrapping his arms around him tightly. He felt Haslin's arms go around his torso, and Haslin buried his face in Korwin's shoulder. Korwin could feel blood soaking his fatigues, seeping from Haslin's mouth onto his shoulder, and gushing from his stomach wound onto his chest and stomach. "Has, c'mon man...please stay with us." Korwin pleaded. A moment later, the first bomb dropped, drowning out all other sounds.

For ten minutes the Imperials dropped blue fire from the sky, altering an already altered landscape, and choking the air with dust. All throughout, Korwin held on to his friend, his despair growing as he felt his friends grip become weaker and weaker, the sobs and coughs fewer and farther between. After five minutes, he wasn't crying at all anymore, and after three more, he was barely breathing. When the last echo from the last bomb finally faded, Korwin pulled back from his friend and took his pulse. There was nothing. There they lay, the five of them, four living and one dead, for an indeterminate amount of time. When at last they heard the engine wash of the two heavily armed "gunship" boxes approaching, they crawled from beneath the overhang and looked around at the further devastation that had been wrought by the Imperial bombs.

Korwin turned and watched as Kreth helped Avery extricate himself from underneath the overhang, his face twisted in a grimace of pain. His front was soaked with Haslin's blood, his back with his own. Kreth helped him limp over to the one gunship that touched down in only corner of the LZ that was still flat after the bombs. The gunners both leaped off the box and dashed over to Kreth and Avery, taking the wounded man from Kreth. It was only then that Korwin noticed that Kreth was limping as well, and had a small bloody hole in her leg, right next to a blaster wound.

He turned to help Kierse pull Haslin out, and found the task already completed. Silently, he took Haslin's feet as Kierse took his arms, and they lifted him up between them. Korwin grimaced, as a lance ofwhite-hot pain shot through his left leg and hip. He pushed the pain aside, and forced himself to start walking, one foot in front of the other.Korwin and Kiersecarriedtheir fallen brother in armswordlessly to the box that waited on the ground,while the other one circled protectivelyabove. When they reached it, they laid him gently inside, and thenwere helpedin themselves. As the box lifted off, Korwin noted that even Kierse had not gotten away unscathed. His left shoulder bore a blaster wound, and the same arm another.

Avery lay back against the wall, his eyes closed, and it took Korwin several moments to realize that he was praying out loud, something he hadn't done since he was a child. It was an old Junoan prayer, one that was traditional during times of need. Just as he finished, Avery's left eye cracked open, and he muttered, "Don't worry shithead...you ain't gonna get rid of me that easy." His eye closed again, and he took a deep, slow breath. "Hurts though."

Korwin looked down at Haslin, and said, "Yeah." He could think of nothing else to say. Picking up his comlink, he called in to the base camp. "Big K, this is Larry 3-K. On our way home now...four wounded, one KIA." His gut clenched tightly as the last three letter's exited his mouth.

"Copy that. We'll have stretchers and medical staff on site...I'm sorry soldier."

Korwin turned off his comlink, and rode the rest of the way home in silence. There was nothing more to say. When the box finally touched down on the airfield in the center of camp, Korwin was all too ready to get off. He and Kierse gently removed Haslin from the box and laid him on a waiting stretcher. He was taken away towards the morgue tent, to be processed for his death certificate and his shipping orders. They'd be sending him to his family on Dantooine, of course. He turned and helped Avery off next, andguided him onto a stretcher, helping him lie down on his stomach. Avery gripped his forearm tightly, and Korwin saw tears glittering in his eyes. "I'm sorry I couldn't save him Magic. I tried, man. I really did." Avery said through his unshed tears.

"I know man. It ain't your fault Ave. Now you go get right, okay?" He looked up at the nurses, and said, "Get him out of here." They took Avery away as well, leaving three more stretchers...one for each of them. Korwin was helped to one as well, his hip becoming painfully stiff,and he settled himself gratefully onto it. Fatigue was seeping in now that the adrenaline from the battle had run thin in his blood, and he was starting to really feel the pain of his numerous wounds. Then Haslin's face flashed through his mind.

He closed his eyes, and finally allowed the silent tears to fall. He opened his eyes to see a young Twilek nurse approaching him with a syringe in her hand. As she cleaned off his bicep with antiseptic rub, he felt a wave of deep sorrow wash over him. He'd never had another sniper in his squad, and he didn't care to. Avery had made a quick transition in only because he was such an old friend of Korwin's. Haslin's death left a void in the unit that would be impossible to fill. "Damn Has...what the hell are we gonna do without you?" he whispered to the early morning air.

And as the nurse injected the painkillers into his arm, and the euphoria took over, he felt an oddly cool breeze wash over his pained body. As the breeze ghosted by, he heard a soft voice whispering in his ear. _We're recon, boss. We never leave a man behind._

* * *

"I'm sorry." Korwin said, quickly wiping tears from his eyes. "I can't talk anymore now."

Laina set down her datapad, and said, "I understand Mr. Nalan. Thank you for your time today."

He stood up abruptly, and nodded his head perfunctorily. "You're welcome." He said tonelessly. "Tomorrow morning then." He turned and walked out the door, leaving the room in an awkward silence.

No one broke the silence as they shut down their equipment and prepared to leave for the evening. It was almost as hard to watch someone start to break down like that, as it was to do it in front of people yourself. Laina saved the information she'd recorded, and shut down her datapad. Tomorrow would bring a new day, and hopefully a happier ending.


	26. Soldier 21

Well, I'm sorry that this took so long to get finished. Lot's of things going on recently in my personal life...you know how it goes. Anyway, I hope you enjoy, and I'm already working on the next chapter. It's a priority!

Also, if you have any reviews you'd like to post...you know, to fan the flames of creativity...they'd be much appreciated.

* * *

Korwin sat in his plush, comfortable chair, looking altogether more collected than when he'd left a day previous. Smiling sincerely at Laina, he said, "I apologize for running out so quickly yesterday."

Returning the smile, she reassured him. "It's not a problem, Mr. Nalan. Really, it's fine."

"Well, as long as you're sure." he replied. "So, I suppose I should pick up where I left off."

"Whenever you're ready Mr. Nalan."

"Very well...we each spent about a week and a half recovering. They got us all in bacta tanks, and then prescribed bedrest after that. We all needed it. Avery had almost bled to death by the time they got him hooked up to a plasma drip." Taking a deep breath, he said, "Of course, we all made full recoveries. All of us except Has." Korwin swiped a hand over his eyes, quickly wiping away a fresh set of tears before they could fall. There was a faint quiver in his voice when he first started up again, but itwas gone momentarily."After getting out of the hospital, I received my second promotion to Sergeant, andDilan got his stripes for the first time. Avery was bumped up to Corporal, as was Danna. We were sent to _The Spirit of Alderaan _to regroup with each other. When we arrived, we discovered that it was packed with recon troops, and not just from Tatooine. They were from nearly every ground combat front we had, and they were still coming in after we arrived."

"And what did it mean?" Laina asked.

"Well, we had thought we'd be going back down to participate in the final battles for Tatooine. But we didn't. The regular Infantry went in after the bombings and artillery bombardments, and forced the Imps out of the canyons, and eventually, out of Mos Espa and Anchorhead as well. It took them almost three and a half weeks of hard-fighting, and they took a lot of casualties. But they did it.

"What we were unsure of at first, was what they were going to do with us." Korwin picked up his water glass, and took a long drink. After setting it down, he continued. "We soon found out. High Command had ordered the consolidation of all of the Company, Battalion, and Division level LRIS' into one large unit: The 17th Infantry(Recon). We got replacements fresh from basic and the newrecon school, and then organized into our new units and moved off to new adventures.

"Eventually, the 17th would be disbanded. That happened about a month after the Battle of Coruscant. Those of us who were still not discharged, or who had decided to continue with the New Republic Army, reverted back to our old parent units as regular infantrymen. About five years later, Major Drendel, whom you may remember as Lt. Drendel, plead his case to the big brass along with Borlin, who was by that point a full-bird Colonel, and was granted permission to start a Recon/Commando school. Some of the old Civil War recon guys who were still around went and re-certified, and quite a few became instructors. About a year and a half after that, the 17th Infantry(Recon) was born again, with Borlin as the Regimental CO." Grinning broadly, Korwin said, "There's a statue of me in the main courtyard of the Recon/Commando School on the 17th's base. Did you know that?"

Laina laughed pleasantly, and said, "As a matter of fact, I did."

"Well, I'm getting off track...as I said, we reformed into the 17th Infantry(Recon). This was an almost regiment sized unit, all told, but it was unique in that all it's troops did not serve in one theater of war. As before, we were dispersed to serve other units. The difference is that we did so in the form of a Recon Company, with our own CO, XO, and our own section of the base. Each Recon Company served with at least a regiment sized unit, running patrols for each battalion and company within that regiment. Although, some Companies served an entire Division instead. My company was sent back to the 1st Light Infantry, but was separate from the 1st Light as far as Admin and housing went. My proper unit designation until shortly before my discharge was Shadow Company, 17th Infantry(Recon). Instead of platoons, we had patrols, and instead of a number designation for each patrol, we had a colorname for it. There were three patrols to a company, and ten teams to a patrol. Of course, each team was the standard five-man recon squad that we'd been running all along. My squad was placed in Blue Patrol, and was designated Team 8."

"And how did you deal with all of this change so shortly after the loss of one of your closest friends and teammates?" Laina's asked pointedly.

Korwin ran a hand over his hair and quirked his mouth in a frown indicative of deep thought. After a moment, he said, "It was tough at first. But like I've said before, you try to put it out of your mind, you know? You grieve for a day or two tops, and then you push it to the back of your mind and force yourself to continue functioning properly. In the end, that's all you can really do. You learn to deal with the losses as they come, and to stow the pain for later, when it becomes convenient to deal with."

Laina nodded her head, and took a few notes. After finishing with her task, she looked up at Korwin and said, "After spending just over a year on Tatooine, and dealing with all that you did, what was it like to just suddenly leave?"

"It was strange. There was an immediate feeling of relief amongst not just my team, but all of the Tatooine Larry's, when we heard that we wouldn't be going back to Tatooine. When we heard that the Infantry had been successful in driving the Imps off the planet, we were ecstatic. But at the same time, it was...we'd just spent months of our lives on that planet, spilling our blood and the blood of others to liberate it for the locals, you know?All of us lost friends down there...family, really." Korwin's voice was soft, his expression sad and distant. "It was difficult to imagine that all of the sudden, just like that, after all those months of fighting, we were just...gone. We were just leaving. It was done, it was over, and most of us would never see the place again. It was hard to believe. For the first week after I left the surface, I kept waking up expecting to be sticky with sweat and covered in grit and grime. I kept expecting to hear the sounds of the artillery batteries firing off in the distance, or small arms fire from an infantry company engaging the Imps or Tusken's somewhere. Of course, I didn't."

Laina raised an eyebrow, and said, "You didn't feel gypped when they pulled the recon squads before the Big Push really began? As though you were being left out of the action?"

Korwin laughed at that, and replied, "Not at all! Recon troops aren't meant for that kind of heavy, prolonged fighting. I mean, we could have put on a blast vest and helmet and hopped in with the regular infantrymen, but where would that have left High Command when we started dying like infantrymen? They needed recon troops, and it was much faster and easier to train an infantry rifleman than it was to train a competent recon rifleman." Lifting his water glass from the nearby table, he took a sip.

After setting his water down, Korwin said, "You see, those of us who had been Larry's since the inception of the recon squads had learned through trial and error, and from what little we'd gleaned from the _very, very_ few older guys who had experience in things like that. About halfway through my time on Tatooine, the brass took some of their older Spec Ops guys, and a few folks who had recon experience from the clone wars, and they started a small training camp for Larry's out on the rim. They also did some classroom study, and went through a series of mental, physical and emotional endurance trials. Then they learned to function as an LRIS with their training teammates. That's an incredibly basic, barebones description of the recon school, but it'd take a while to go into it fully."

"That's alright. You know, it sounds an awfullot like a special forces team to me." Laina remarked.

Korwin shrugged, and said, "Well, you know, we were. We weren't SpecOps, as most people think of them. We were classified as a "Special Operations Unit" though, because we performed specialized operations that were beyond the capabilities of your average infantry company. So technically, we were part of Alliance Special Forces. Our Regimental CO, Colonel Ristis Kelbin, answered to General Madine. So we were part of the family. Just an extended branch of it." Korwin grinned.

"How did your mission orders come down after that?" Laina asked.

"Well, because each Company was with it's own unit, our mission orders came down from whoever the commander was of whatever unit we were serving. Because S Company went back to the 1st Light, General Oreth and his staff were the ones who issued mission orders. It worked a lot like before. The Regimental Intelligence Officer, or RIO, would identify a need for troop counts in a certain area, or would want to sweep a sector to confirm enemy activity. Maybe he and Oreth want some body count, so they order up an ambush patrol. What happens then is the RIO and General Oreth, along with the Regimental XO, would talk about what they wanted, and then would write up mission objectives for the AOO.

"The XO would then brief Borlin and give him the orders. At that point, Captain Borlin made the decision as to which of his squads he would send, and then he issued the team leader of that squad a mission warning, along with the details and briefing materials. The team leader does a flyover of the AOO if possible, and then briefs his squad on the coming operation. Prepare as normal, with equipment decisions, studying of any aerial recon we might have, dress rehearsals, and Q&A sessions to make sure the team remembers everything. More or less."

"Okay...you mention that the 17th served in different theaters of war simultaneously. But before that-"

"Before that, was the attempted liberation of Naboo." Korwin said quietly. He sighed, and said, "It was the first action that we took part in as the 17th infantry, and it was a hard one for me...for all of us. It was an operation in conjunction with 1st Light Infantry Regiment, and the 9th Light Infantry Regiment, both of the 22nd Infantry Regular Division. Another participant was the 191st Heavy Armor Regiment, of the 27th Mechanized Cavalry Division."

"And how was the mission different from others you'd faced?" Laina asked.

"Well, it wasn't a Recon mission, first off. The brass got it into their heads that if five Larry's were capable of such stealthy destruction, you know, what could three hundred of them do?" Korwin shook his head ruefully, and said, "The infantry and armor landed at the edge of the city of Theed, with the objective of pushing through to the palace. Shadow Company and Phantom Company of the 17th were dropped by the Gungan Lakes the night before. Our job was to sneak through the jungle, neutralizing any Imp threats we found as quickly as possible, and then scale the cliffs behind the palace and make a direct assault on the palace itself. The Imp presence was supposed to be very light in Theed, and we were told that we'd wait no more than two days for the Infantry and Armor to fight throughandlink up with us. It was expected that we might come under light seige during that time, and that's why they sent the recon troops to the palace. From there, we could mount "heavies". Those were ten man patrols, made up of two squads, similar in composition to what we used on the Imp armored recon forces in the Tatooine desert.

"It was also different in that it was very personal, you know? Eli and her family lived literally a fifteen minute walk from the palace. It was entirely likely that I'd patrol past her home...you know?"

"How did you prepare for that kind of thing?"

"Well, I forced myself not to think about it. On the practical side of things,most of us had never fought in jungle before, and none of us had any experience in true urban recon. We were sent to a small jungle planet just outside of known space. It didn't have a name, just a number designation given to it by the Alliance. Planet TC-3892; we all just called it TC. There, we spent three weeks learning some of the particulars of jungle operations, as well as training in a small urban complex they'd built for that purpose." He gave a small chuckle, and said, "You know, I've got some stories about that place...the things we did to each other." He almost started laughing, but caught himself. "We arrived in the middle of the night, and I'll tell you what...it was blacker than the Emperor's asshole." Korwin winced at the words that came out of his mouth. "Sorry."

Laina rolled her eyes, and said, "You can stop apologizing anytime now."

"Sor...excuse me. My wife has me well trained." A round of light laughter passed through the room, prompting Korwin to wait a moment before speaking. "We landed in a large clearing, and the dropships lifted off as soon as we were all debarked. There was no one there to greet us, and all around the clearing was this unbelievably dense triple-canopy jungle. We could hear all kinds of animals calling and moving around in there, but they seemed to be staying away from us. We must have waited for an hour before one of the replacements from P Company got sick of it."

* * *

"C'mon guys, this is ridiculous. At least pop a fucking glowrod. I can barely see Magic, and he's sitting right next to me."

Kierse looked over at the freshy, and said, "Shut the fuck up, Memlo. Nobody asked for your input."

Memlo said, "Why don't _you_ shut the fuck up?" but his tone lacked any real bite. It was hard for any of the replacements, green as they were, to backtalk the older guys. But some still made valiant efforts.

Korwin glanced at his new teammate. Private Lurin Memlo was a tall, handsome and strongly-built human male, with milky white skin, blond hair, and blue eyes. At the age of nineteen, and having just graduated into one of the most elite units in the Alliance Military, he was full of piss and vinegar. He also had as much combat experience as Korwin's little sister, which was something that Kierse and Avery never failed to point out to him.

Being quite the pretty boy, Memlo hadreceived quite a bit of attention from the various Navy ladies while they'd been aboard _The_ _Spirit of Alderaan_. Most of them had been nurses, admin, or supply. The moment he'd hopped in the dropships however, he'd found far fewer females to hit on, and none but the new girls were willing to pay him any mind as anything other than a "fucking new guy". He was treated by Danna, Eckra, and the other female vets the same way he was treated by the male vets...as nothing more than a potential liability due to his lack of experience. Graduating recon school wasn't enough; you had to prove yourself in the field. It was the same with all of the 17th's replacements, and it seemed to grate on Memlo more than any of the other's that Korwin had spoken to. Deciding to try and make the kid feel a little more welcome, Korwin said, "Hey Kierse...ease up man."

Kierse shot a 'you-gotta-be-kidding-me' look Korwin's way, but shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly and said, "As you wish."

Turning to Memlo, Korwin said, "You'll get used to the dark. It's a good thing kid."

"But there's _no_ Imps here! What do we have to worry about?" Memlo asked emphatically.

"Memlo!" Somebody called from another part of the clearing. "If you want light so fucking bad, pop your own glowrod!"

Korwin said, "He's right Memlo...you got glowrods. You want some light, pop your own."

Memlo sat silently, but did not pop a glowrod. A few minutes later, a young Zabrak female from P Company stood up and said, "Memlo's right. This is ridiculous. Nobody's coming to get us. I'm going to look for the compound."

Avery muttered, "Shit, I'm with her. Let's get fuckin' movin'." Almost as one, the two Recon Companies got to their feet, grabbed their rifles and packs, and began following the young P Company replacement out of the clearing.

After the nearly three hundred soldiers had filed into the jungle, a Kel Dor voice sounded off. "Now what?"

Korwin waited for someone to respond, and then shook his head exasperatedly when no one did. "Ave, let's head up. This is almost like the forests back home...just different plants."

Avery patted him on the shoulder, and said, "This is the only time you'll catch Doc Azen walkin' point."

"Doc Azen's lucky he's the medic." Korwin replied with a smile in his voice. Moving up the line to the front, Avery and Korwin stopped next to the Zabrak girl. "What's your name Private?"

"Keta Hett, sir."

"Private Hett, I'm Sergeant Nalan, this is Corporal Azen, S Company, Blue Team 8." Private Hett snapped them a quick salute, and Korwin said, "Break that habit. We don't do that in the field. Imp snipers will target NCO's and officer's if they know who to shoot."

"But we're not in the field sir." Came Hett's response.

Avery said, "We're in trainin', or will be soon. Treat it like it's the field."

"Yes sir." She looked through the jungle in the direction she'd originally headed. "Where do you think we should go?"

Korwin and Avery shared a quick look, and then Korwin said, "Avery'll take point, I'll take slack. You just stick right behind me, and don't lose sight of me. Set blasters to stun and be on the lookout for wild animals. Imps aren't the only dangerous thing in the wilderness. Pass the word down. Remember your hand signals, and use em'. Complete silence from this point on."

Hett turned around and passed the message down the line in hand signals. As it went down, many of the replacements began to grumble. They were quickly silenced by the vets, and Korwin gave Avery the signal to move out. It was amazing to him how much louder they sounded with two full companies. Despite the complete lack of enemy presence on their training world, Korwin still felt as though he might as well be standing in an open field yelling, "SHOOT ME!", for all the noise they were making.

Avery led them in a circuit around the perimeter of the clearing, and eventually called a halt. He turned to Korwin, and gestured at some broken branches. They hadn't been through this area before, so they hadn't done it. Korwin signaled for him to check the ground. Avery and Korwin both were fairly experienced hunters. Nearly every man in Tides and The Flats hunted. The forests around the city were filled with game, and if you were a good enough shot, a weeks worth of meat for your family would cost you 1/25th the price of a sporting blaster rifle blaster pack. Even hustling and dealing couldn't provide everything when you were the primary breadwinner for a family of four or more.

Avery began scanning the ground, and then waved them forward slowly after a moment. The moved off at a moderate pace, stopping frequently to check for more signs of humanoid activity. Every so often, they'd alter their bearings, bushwhacking their way through the jungle towards what they hoped was their final objective. If any of them had thought to relax their guard, the frequent growls, yips, shrieks, hisses, and snarls from the jungle quickly changed their minds.

Korwin kept a close eye out on their surroundings, often finding that he could see no further than a foot or two, due to the nearly-solid underbrush that grew beneath the jungle's first canopy. Luckily, nothing tried to eat them during their little hike. After almost six hours of tromping through the jungle, and nearly two hours after sunrise, the sweat-soaked, bug-bitten Larry's stepped out of the jungle and into a large clearing. The clearing must have been nearly four hundred acres square, and was filled almost entirely with a basic mock-up of a small urban sprawl.

Korwin looked around the area, and then waved the remaining recon troops back into the trees. Something felt off about the area...something felt - _SPLAT_ - wrong. Korwin's instincts kicked in, and he barely caught himself from firing a burst of stun bolts in the direction of the buildings as he dashed back into the trees. He crouched down behind a fallen tree that was covered in moss, and felt his forehead. It stung fiercely, and he could feel something dripping down the bridge of his nose. Checking his fingers, he was relieved to see bright turquoise paint instead of blood. "Fuck." he muttered.

"You can come out now!" A booming voice rang out to the hiding Larry's. Korwin stepped back into the compound with his comrades, looking around for the source of the voice. A moment later, a man stood from a small pile of refuse that Korwin had completely overlooked. In his hands was a small, odd looking rifle. He was wearing fatigues that were mostly grey, black and white, and his face was painted in a similar fashion. He looked over the assembled Larry's and said, "My name is Captain Riizen. I am the director of this small training facility. On behalf of General Madine, and the rest of the Alliance SpecOps community, let me be the first to welcome you to the Special Operations family. That being said, you should know that the next three weeks will not be easy.

"In these three weeks, we must teach you everything we know about fighting in both the jungle and in urban zones. Furthermore, you'll be learning a new method of extraction." Taking a few steps back, he said, "Let's get you all settled into your quarters, and then we'll get started on todays exercises." An S Company replacement, from Drendel's squad, raised his hand. "Yes Private?"

"Uh, sir...we've been hiking through the jungle for over six hours. Shouldn't we rest?"

The Captain eyed the young man speculatively for several moments, as if sizing up a piece of meat, and then said, "You're three hours late, Private. I was going to let you all off the hook, but you just had to fuck it up." Captain Riizen raised his voice so that everyone could hear him. "Thanks to Private..." he glanced at the soldier's fatigues, reading his name off the chestpatch, "Thanks to Private Kenna here, all of you are going to be running five lapsaround the perimeter of this compound in all of your gear! For those of you who do not know how far that is, let me just tell you that once around is well over two miles! Once you're finished with that, you can report to this same spot to be shown to your quarters, after which we will begin the day's exercises! You'll also have Private Kenna to thank if you have to stay up late tonight to finish today's work! Now get to running!" Captain Riizen stood there long enough to watch the three hundred recon troops shoulder their packs and begin jogging.

As he walked into the streets of the "city", Memlo turned to Korwin and said, "Hey Magic, isn't he worried about us not finishing the run?"

Korwin laughed as they started off, and said, "Hell no, kid. He knows we'll finish it. We're recon."

* * *

The days flew by for Korwin, as he gained new understanding of what it meant to be recon. The SpecOps troops that were instructing them were excellent soldiers, and had a breadth of knowledge about their chosen field that left Korwin in awe of them. During the first two weeks, they all learned basic medics skills, something the SpecOps men insisted was a must for any small unit that operated under the situations that the Larry's did. As well, they all learned basic demolitions skills. Special care was given to the actual demolitions specialists in each team, and they learned many new techniques that would undoubtedly serve them well. The sniper's got some special training as well, but Korwin had no squad sniper.

When Borlin had told him he'd be getting a new sniper, Korwin had firmly refused him. They'd gone back and forth over the subject for almost an hour, before Korwin had finally snapped, "You send me a new sniper, I'll stun his ass and send him back to you in his footlocker." Sothe new S Company COhad sent him Memlo, a rifleman and basic recon scout, instead. He'd been doing well, and was learning not to question the veteran's orders. He also had a mischievous streak a mile wide.

Currently, they were nearing the end of the second week, and Korwin's team found themselves sitting in a small, water-filled depression in a single-canopy jungle several miles to the south of the compound. They were finishing out the final phase of the combat training, a simulated combat patrol, live-fire, with weapons set to stun. Korwin glanced to his right, and made eye contact with Drendel, who was walking slack for his team. Drendel gave the all clear and waved Korwin's team out of their hide. Kreth stepped out on point, with Korwin walking slack. Memlo stood behind him, with Avery in the fourth spot, and Kierse pulling rear security. They began moving slowly through the jungle, Drendel's team keeping pace with them some thirty yards to the right.

Kreth kept them on their current heading, leading them through sparse underbrush towards what they hoped was a small ravine with a bridge over it. They were to set up an ambush by the bridge, in concert with Drendel's squad. As they crept through the jungle, Korwin kept an eye out for anything out of place. His vigilance was vindicated when, a moment later, he spotted movement off to his left. He tapped Kreth on the the shoulder, and quickly crouched low. The rest of his team followed suit, as did Drendel and his squad. Korwin signaled for Memlo to follow him, and then slipped silently away towards where he'd seen the movement.

After sneaking close to forty yards, theyfound an embankment that rose up roughly fifteen feet. Crouchedby a treeon the embankment, his fatigue trousers around his ankles, was Lt. Harbin. Harbin was a replacement officer with Phantom Company, and was particularly pompous. He was great in training, no doubt about that, but he thought quite highly of his recently acquired skills and he made sure everyone knew it. Looking further up the embankment, Korwin spotted two other members of Harbin's squad. He went prone, flattening himself on his stomach under the eaves of a broad bush. Memlo did likewise. He grinned at his team leader, and Korwin knew what he was thinking.

This was part of the force they were supposed to ambush...an advance scout force, most likely. How they'd managed to get across the bridge already, Korwin had no idea, but if they thought they'd get the drop on his guys, they were dead wrong. And it looked like Harbin might be there a while. Korwin flashed several hand signs at Memlo, who immediately did as ordered, racing off to bring both his and Drendel's squad into position. Two minutes later, Harbin was still 'stuck', so to speak, by the tree on the embankment, when both squads came up to Korwin's position. He sent Kreth up to scout the other side of the embankment, trusting in her ability to get by unseen.

Three minutes later, when she came back, Harbin had not moved. His face was twisted in a grimace of pain, and it appeared that the sudden change from decent food in basic, recon school, and on the _Spirit_, to the nutrient-packed ration bars they used in the field had left Harbin badly backed up. Kreth confirmed that all four teams of the enemy were on the other side. Drendel took his team around to flank, and Korwin sent Avery, Kierse and Kreth around the other side. Korwin and Memlo stayed right where they were. The attack signal was to be a shot from Korwin, but as he watched his new teammate struggling to maintain his composure as they watched the stuck-up new LT try vainly to take a crap in the middle of a "combat patrol", he decided that the shot should go to Memlo. He signaled for Memlo to go ahead and take his shot. Korwin trained his rifle on one of the soldiers on top of the embankment. Another replacement. _Recon school ain't turning them out trained right. Idiot's dead._ he thought to himself.

Memlo's blaster rifle barked loudly, and blue stun bolt took Harbin square in the back. Korwin's shot came a split second later, stunning one of the soldiers on top of the embankment. Memlo dropped the other, as sounds of firing rang out from the other side of the embankment, and the jungle surrounding. Korwin and Memlo stood from their positions, and dashed forward to assist their comrades. By the time they got to the top of the embankment, most of the four-team "infantry force" was stunned and unconscious on the ground. Korwin and Memlo dropped three more between the two of them, before a hail of fire from the jungle brought down the rest. Korwin and Memlo pulled back to their original position, waiting for the rest of their "heavy" squad. When they arrived, they moved to the bridge, and continued on to their final objective, which was "extraction" at the compound. When at last they reached the camp again, the instructors who'd been monitoring the entire exercise were in near hysterics.

One of them walked straight up to Korwin, and said, "You have no idea...man, Riizen just called in and told us what you guys did out there. That's fucking priceless!"

Avery looked over at Memlo, and said, "You done good kid." Grinning, he slugged Memlo in shoulder.

Memlo said, "Thanks Azen."

* * *

"Avery called that guy 'Mr. Harbin Brown' forever after. The poor LT had finally got things moving just before Memlo shot him with the stun bolt. He wasn't too happy about that."

Laina wrinkled her nose in distaste, and said, "No, I'd imagine not."

"S'okay though, you know? The name and the story were repeated often enough, that he got humble after that. He turned out alright, you know?" Korwin said.

"So what was the third week made up of?" Laina asked.

Korwin grinned. "Jump training. Our method of insertion onto Naboo, at least for the recon guys, was HALO. That stands for High Altitude Low Opening. Basically, we'd be jumping out of a dropship in the lower atmosphere, and falling to within a thousand feet of the jungle before we deployed our parachutes."

"Isn't that a bit...archaic?" Laina queried, one of her lekku shifting minutely.

"Absolutely...but it was perfect for what we needed. There's not a radar in the galaxy can pick up organic beings falling through the sky. And who'd think to turn bioscanners up there? The fact that it's a method that is so incredibly out of date is what made it so perfect for what we needed."

"And what was that?"

"Surprise. We needed surprise. So we got a crash course in parachuting technique, landing technique, and proper skydiving technique. Five jumps to qualify for the mission to Naboo. Not a single one of us failed, in either company."

"And after that?"

"When we'd qualified to jump, we were given a wing patch to put on our fatigues and dress uniforms, to show thatwe'd done that. It was really a very rare thing, and limited to recon and SpecOps. It was something we were proud of. We sewed them on our uniforms on the way to the mustering point for the invasion of Naboo."

Laina smiled, and said, "Well, why don't we get to that after some lunch, shall we?"

"Sounds fine to me. I'll see you in an hour."


	27. Soldier 22

Well, um...I guess I got a little carried away today. Here's the next chapter. Enjoy.

Reviews are better than sex. Please post them...okay, they're not that good, but they're pretty damn good.

* * *

"So, where were we?" Korwin asked.

"The ride to Naboo."

"Right...the ride to Naboo." Korwin rubbed his chin thoughtfully, and then said, "It felt like forever. Once transport pulled into the main hangar on the flagship _Trident_, it really began to sink in that this was no fucking joke. We were really going to invade Naboo and try to oust the Imps there."

"Now, many people may not be familiar with why such a move was made. You yourselves were not at the time, isn't that correct?" Laina asked bluntly.

Korwin nodded ruefully, and said, "We had no idea at the time. We thought that it was kind of silly, tactically speaking. Now, Naboo was loyal to the Empire, technically, but when I'd been there, they had no troops. Well, when we heard that they'd sent in soldiers, it made no sense. So far as we knew, they had nothing of importance to either side, so the Imps getting so serious about the place being theirs all of the sudden was just strange. I just couldn't think of any reason why they'd suddenly get so possessive, so I kept my mouth shut." Korwin ran a hand over his cornrows, and said, "The real reason, as I discovered many years later, is that there is a huge plasma source underneath Theed. It gave the Imps an almost unlimited supply of plasma to power weapons, starships, vehicles, you name it. High Command wanted that, and had gotten the info from Bothan spies. Apparently, the Imps tightened up on security on Naboo because they were worried about local 'terrorists' trying to sabotage their plasma. They never thought we'd come there."

"How long were you on the _Trident_ for?"

"We were on board the Trident for a day and a half while the fleet moved to Naboo through hyperspace. We got plenty of sleep and then woke up about five hours before the drop. We went through thefinal briefings and talked over each teams entry point and route to their objectives, and then got our gear ready. We put on jungle pattern fatigues, got our weapons ready to go, and packed light day packs for our trip through the jungle. We also made sure to put our urban camo's in the bottoms of our packs. After that, we painted ourselves up, and headed to the hangar bay. We got into the dropship the second the fleet came out of hyperspace. We didn't drop out of hyperspacedirectly in system; that would have given us away, you know? Instead, the fleet held it's position several planets away, while the dropships flew out with us inside."

* * *

Korwin glanced over at Avery and nodded his head. They stepped inside the dropship, and seated themselves on one of the benches that ran along the hold. "This is it man."

"No shit...remember what the instructor's said about HALOing...don't puke in your oxygen mask." Avery laughed and held up his fighter pilots helmet and oxygen mask. Each of the three hundred recon troops that made up S and P Companies had been issued the same helmets and masks, so that they could breath on the way down. In addition, should they land in the Gungan Lakes which were in their DZ, the helmet and mask would allow the troops to breath until they reached shore.

No one else in the dropship spoke a word as the ramp closed, leaving them in near darkness. They took off literally seconds later, and Korwin took a long, slow breath as he felt the dropship wing it's way into space. He let his neck muscles relax, and leaned his head against the cool durasteel plating behind him. He'd been trying not to think about Eli for the last three weeks, but he now found it unavoidable. She lived near the palace. She lived in a combat zone. He could only hope she'd be safe. Hopefully, she'd be smart enough to stay in her home once the shooting started. He found himself playing out horrible scenes in his head, in which thousands of civilians were caught up in the fighting. He knew that there would be civilian casualties; it was inevitable. He just couldn't silence the fearful voice that whispered that Eli could be one of them.

After almost two hours of sublight travel, a red light came on over the door, and he felt the bucking of the ship entering the atmosphere. As it broke through the lower atmosphere, the ship slowed dramatically, and Korwin found himself thrown hard into Avery, and Avery into the troop next to him, and so on down the line. There was a chorus of startled yells and curses from the 100 Larry's that lined both walls of the dropships hold. When the enormous pileup of troops had sorted themselves out on both sides, they all stood up and put on their helmets. Korwin strapped on his oxygen mask and flipped his sun visor down. Clean cool air filtered out of the re-breather strapped to his chest, and into his lungs.

He was fifth in line to the jump, and as he turned to face the exit, the ramp began to slowly lower, revealing the starry sky beyond. When it was perfectly horizontal, creating an extension of the deck, the light turned green. Korwin felt his pulse quicken as one by one, the five troops in front of him ran to the edge of the ramp and leaped into the night sky. When it came his turn, he felt a rush of adrenaline pour through his veins, and he dashed for the edge of the ramp. As his right foot touched the edge, and he found himself staring into the great nothingness beneath, he propelled himself outward in a tremendous dive.

Korwin tumbledthrough a controlled spin for several hundred feet before righting himself in the proper position for descent. He could barely pick out the forms of the other S Company recon troops that had jumped before him, and felt confident that they'd be unseen from the ground. As he fell gracefully through the air, Korwin reveled in a sense of freedom that was unequaled by anything he'd ever experienced. He yelled joyfully into his oxygen mask, his previous unpleasant thoughts momentarily forgotten as the wind wrapped him in it's gentle embrace and carried him towards the distant lakes and jungles miles below. All thought was swept away like a child's voice in a hurricane, and he lived only in the moment, his eyes closed, his body completely in tune with the currents of air that ebbed and flowed around his body like an invisible river.

Korwin's nerves sang with each movement he made, and he worked on instinct alone when he finally deployed his canopy. Letting his wide awake senses determine his path along the currents, he guided himself in a slow spiraling pattern towards his landing point. A soft splash below him broke his euphoric trance, and he realized that he was going to come down in one of the lakes, about seventy yards from shore. He adjusted his angle of descent at the last moment, so that he hit the water traveling forward, instead of almost straight down. He landed gently, and slipped momentarily beneath the surface of the pleasantly warm water. He quickly released himself from his parachute and slipped out of the harness, before paddling hard for shore. He thanked the gods that he'd grown up near the ocean, and he made it to shore in record time.

Upon arriving, he quickly removed his helmet and mask. He dropped them by the lake, and then put his re-breather apparatus next to it. He had a smaller, portable one on his utility belt if it became necessary. Setting his pack on the ground, he opened up the long, narrow side compartment that was designed to fit his blaster rifle for jumps. Pulling the weapon out, he quickly re-slung his light pack and then scanned the beach. There were already close to a dozen Larry's gathered on the shore, and Korwin and the rest of them moved into the jungle, creeping silently to their rally points. Each of the Companies had divided it's approach to the palace cliffs into three paths. That meant six approaches for the six patrols.

It was almost fifteen minutes before all of Blue Patrol had formed up. Korwin's team gathered around him, and the other nine teams of Blue Patrol crouched in the jungle around them. They all pulled various bits of foliage off of surrounding plants to complete their camouflage, and then they moved out slowly. Drendel, the Patrol Leader, gave the signal for them to disperse into individual squads, and to keep in close contact. They'd gotten new comm units that fit snuggly around their necks. Gentle pressure on a small pad that pressed against the larynx would send the transmission. There was a small dial worn around the wrist like a chrono that displayed the channel setting. In this way, any troop could call any other troop, or call Command, or for artillery backup. Well, theoretically. They didn't have any backup just yet.

Kreth moved out on point for Team 8, and Korwin stepped up in the slack position, as usual. Memlo was behind him, with Avery fourth and Kierse in rear security. Korwin could hear Memlo's heavy breathing, and turned to look at him for a moment. He was visibly tense, and his eyes were darting around manically, hyper-alert for any kind of threat. Korwin gave him the thumbs up sign, and mouthed, "Calm down." Memlo nodded and returned the thumbs up, before adjusting his grip on his blaster rifle, to make sure he had hold of it firmly, and forcing his muscles to relax. They knew there were Imp patrols in the jungles, mostly to keep the Gungans in the swamps and jungles. They just didn't know exactly how many there were, or where they were, and it seemed the tension was getting to the freshy.

After a couple of hours, they moved from single-canopy jungle into slow-moving swampland. Kreth stopped the squad as a whisper came over their earpieces. It was the voice of Staff Sgt. Ny'Seliri, a near-human man who had been with a 2nd Battalion recon squad on Tatooine. He was now a member of Blue Patrol Team 3 in S Company. "I have visual. Twelve contacts, regular stormtroopers, taking a breather on a game trail." Each squad and patrol was keeping careful track of where the others were, as had been planned during their briefings and exercises. "Holding."

"Copy. Team 8, move to assist. The rest of Blue Patrol, hold tight and hold fire."

Korwin reached up and keyed his comm. "Copy. Team 8 going hot." He waved Kreth on, and she led them near Team 3's position. They stopped within sight of the enemy, and then began slowly creeping around to get behind them. The stormtroopers had started moving again by the time they got there, and were walking along a narrow trail that was raised up out of the muck and thick underbrush of the swamp. They were approaching Ny'Seliri, or Seli, as they all called him. Korwin looked for Seli's team, and spotted them a moment later, about twenty feet off the trail. Korwin's squad finally made it around behind the Imps, but stayed off the trail. He held up a hand, and signaled for his troops to wait for Seli's shot.

The Imp's were caught completely unawares by the two grenades that suddenly detonated in their midst. Four of them were flung high into the air, coming down hard and lying still on the ground. Another was blown several yards off the trail, his feet still planted firmly where he'd been standing when the explosion had taken him. Korwin stepped quickly from the swamps underbrush and poured a concentrated stream of automatic fire down the trail. Kierse hurled another grenade past him, and Avery, Memlo and Kreth added their own streams of red energy. Seli's team poured on the energy as well, and between them all, they dropped the rest of the enemy patrol in seconds. Korwin motioned for his squad to follow him, and they quickly checked over the bodies to make sure they were all dead. After confirming that they were, Korwin keyed his comm and said, "Target's neutralized."

Drendel's voice came over his earpiece, saying, "Regroup and call the go."

Korwin looked back at Memlo, and saw that his eyes were wide open, and his jaw was hanging slack. "Copy that LT." he said to Drendel. To Memlo, he said, "Suck it up soldier. Us or them, got it?"

Memlo nodded, and whispered, "Yes sir...yes."

"Good...let's go." He got his team back into position, and then keyed his comm. "Move out, double time." They continued their steady march hike through the swamplands, towards the lush double-canopy jungle that lay underneath the palace cliffs. There were no further incidents before they reached the jungle, and Korwin found himself breathing a silent sigh of relief when they finally entered the thick green landscape that lay beneath the great city of Theed. It would be dawn in a few hours, and they'd need to be scaling the cliffs by then. The Infantry and Armor were to land on the outskirts of Theed, on the other side of the city, at 0630. He glanced at his chrono. _0230. Gonna be a long fuckin' day._

He followed Kreth for another hour and a half, when she finally stopped. There, rising abruptly out of the jungle in front of them, were the great cliffs that would take them to the palace. It was still plenty dark out, but they were all tired. Over the next fifteen minutes, three hundred Larry's in full camo and combat gear gathered at the base of the cliff. Pulling climbing harnesses, climbing chord, and grapnel guns out of their packs, each Larry began getting themselves setting up for the ascent. Korwin put on his harness, then fired his gun up the cliff. It didn't make it all the way, but he felt it attach to something. He gave three yard yanks, and felt the specially designed, stone-penetrating grapnel set firmly. He put on his pack, clipped the gun to his belt, and attached the rope to his harness. He began scaling the wall, and glanced down to see Kreth coming up behind him, with the rest of his team following her.

Korwin concentrated on keeping his eyes on the cliff above him after he'd gotten up the first hundred feet or so. The sky was still mercifully dark, masking the three hundred elite rebel warriors in their ascent up the cliff face, but there was a faint lightening on the southeastern horizon. Korwin tried to speed up his climbing, not wanting to get caught on the cliffs when dawn finally broke over Theed. They'd reached the halfway point, nearly eight hundred feet up, when Korwin heard a choked off cry from somewhere to his left. His head whipped around, just in time to catch sight of a Larry falling from the wall. Korwin's heart leaped into his throat, and he vainly reached out, despite the gulf of empty air between them. Thankfully, her harness caught her, and she smacked into the wall some fifteen feet below. He watched as she shook the blow off and set to making up the lost time. _Good girl._ Korwin thought to himself. Their new replacements were turning out to be quality soldiers after all, even if they were a bit jumpy.

He shook his head, and tried to slow his heartbeat down. After succeeding only marginally, he continued his climb. It was nearly two hours more before they reached the top. Korwin was one of the first up. He slowly broughth his eyes up over the edge of the cliff, and found himself staring into one of the lush palatial gardens. Exactly as had been briefed. He quickly pulled himself up onto level ground and then moved out of the way for his team. P Company's three patrols would be making their assault from the direction of the great palace watchtowers. _They should be coming up under the far western tower right now._ Korwin thought to himself. He crept further into the gardens as the rest of Blue Patrol made it up the last feet of the ascent and gathered at their rally point. Once they were all gathered in a tight group, Drendel signalled for them to move to their objectives. He signalled for Team 8 to fall in on his team, Team 1.

They moved out quickly, keeping low and quiet, slipping from shadow to shadow through the deep, dark gardens. They crept to a low wall that was shaded by several large trees, and kept it on their right sides as they approached the path that would take them above the main courtyard. The sky was beginning to glow a lovely pale pink, but the sun had yet to peek over the horizon, and the garden was stillawash in shadow. Korwin stopped suddenly, tapping Kreth on the shoulder. She passed the tap up the line to Drendel, and he glanced back. Korwin held a hand to his ear to indicate that he'd heard something. The heavy squad remained completely still, their breathing slow and even, all of them listening intently.

Indistinct voices could be heard, as well as footsteps moving over the path the was on top of the garden wall. It sounded like women talking; definitely not stormtroopers. They waited until the voices had passed them by, and then for another five minutes, before finally moving out again. When they reached the marble pathway, they crept slowly to the stairs. Drendel's pointman, Sgt. Dorion, checked the courtyard, and gave the all-clear. The heavy squad raced across the open courtyard, and dashed into a covered hallway with a series of alcoves along each wall. Flattening themselves into several alcoves. Drendel's voice came up. "Blue Patrol, call in." Each of the other four heavy squads that comprized Blue patrol called in from their various positions around the courtyard exits, and moments later, calls began coming in from the other patrols of S Company and P Company. When all was in readiness, Captain Borlin's whispered order came over the comm. "S Company, go." A moment later Lt. Iorl, the CO of P Company, whispered, "P Company, go."

Korwin and his team were already running down the empty hallway behind Drendel's. They came to a set of double doors, with a magnetic blast door on either side. These were two of the barracks rooms where stormtroopers were being quartered. Kierse stepped quickly up to the door, and placed a small cutter charge over the magnetic mechanism in the door. He activated it at the precise moment that Drendel's demolition's man activated his. The Larry's shielded their eyes for the five seconds it took for the cutter charges to do their work. As the charge burned out, Avery stepped up to the door next to Kierse. Kierse held the primer button on a plasma grenade, and reached out for the door controls. Avery gripped his plasma shotgun and laid himself along the wall. Korwin stood back from the door, and a little to the left, and Kreth and Memlo were behind him. Drendel's squad stood in a similar formation around the door opposite them.

Kierse punched the controls, and the door slid open. The room was filled with groggy Imperial soldiers, most of whom were just slipping on the black bodysuit that went underneath their armor. Kierse tossed in the grenade and then hit the close button. Three seconds later, twin explosions sounded from each of the barracks rooms. Kierse slid the door open again, and Avery spun in, dropping to one knee as he fired several blasts from his shotgun, he moved quickly to the cover of a dead Imp's cot, and Kierse rushed in, followed by Korwin, Kreth and Memlo. They saturated the room with blaster bolts, and then exited quickly. Korwin tossed in a frag grenade for good measure, and closed the door.

The great double doors were their next objective. Kierse set up a charge on the door, and the Larry's ducked into a series of alcoves along the wall. Kierse rushed into another alcove, and blew the charge, turning the masterfully crafted wooden doors into decorative toothpicks. Korwin rushed to the doorway and peered through the thin cloud of smoke. Seeing nothing, he waved the heavy team forward. Through the doors was a long spiral staircase that led to the upper levels of the palace, and eventually to the throne room. That's where they needed to go. That would be the Recon Companies base of operations in Theed.

Kreth moved up to point, and Korwin's team was first up the stairs. Halfway up, the rounded the bend and came face to face with a pair of stormtroopers coming down. They snapped their rifles up and fired, but Kreth was faster. She stitched a line of blaster bolts across both of their torso's even as their fingers found the trigger. A bolt grazed her shoulder, but she ignored the slight pain, now taking the steps two at a time. They heard frantic voices yelling at the top of the staircase, and a metallic klunking sound that seemed to be growing closer. Suddenly, an explosion ripped through the close space just around the bend from them. Kreth shouted, "They're dropping grenades at us!"

"Move!" Korwin yelled back, putting his hand on her back and pushing her forward.

She quickened her pace, and then dropped flat on the stairs, shouting "Grenade!"

Korwin dropped flat behind her, and the other Larry's did the same, allowing the shrapnel from the frag grenade's blast to pass harmlessly over them. As Korwin stood behind Kreth and began running up the stairs again, he could hear the sounds of fighting breaking out all over the palace. It was everywhere! Kreth rounded the final corner as the stormtroopers at the top was preparing to throw another grenade. He was caught completely by surprise when she suddenly appeared in front of him, and she fired a burst into his gut. The grenade fell from his hand and rolled back into the broad, elegantly decorated hallway that his fellows were standing in. Tinny cries of, "Grenade!" sounded from the Imp's in the hall, followed by a great blast. Kreth threw her own grenade out, and then flattened herself to the right of the door that led into the hall. Korwin tossed a plasma grenade in the other direction and lay himself against the other wall. The grenades exploded, and Memlo rushed past Korwin into the hallway, Avery and Kierse hot on his heels. The sounds of blaster fire filled the marble-lined hallway, and Korwin heard Avery shout, "Memlo!" just as he turned the corner into the hallway.

There was an E-Web heavy repeater set up at the end of the hall, and the gunner appeared to have just been killed. But not before he got Memlo. Korwin glanced at his new teammate, and saw that he was nigh unrecognizable. The huge E-Web bolt had caught him in the face, and had completely burned away the upper right portion of his head, including his right eye and cheekbone. The wound was smoking heavily, and he could hear it sizzling in the momentary lull in the combat. He looked to the other end of the hall, and saw a trio of Imps run out of a doorway next to the dead-end wall. He fired on the second one out the door, killing him instantly with a shot to the head. He took aim on the third, and fired several shots, missing with the first and taking him in the chest with the next three. Kreth, who had rolled out right behind him, took the last one down. A moment later, they discovered why they'd come running, as a heavy squad made up of Blue Patrol Team's 6 and 4 filed hurriedly into the hallway.

All the while, his team and Drendel's were firing at a steady flow of Imps that came running down the long, wide, well-lit hallway, attempting to get to the E-Web. Korwin shouted, "BP 6 and 4, up front, up front!" and waved them forward. Despite being labeled Team eight, Korwin's squad second in Blue Patrol, with Korwin being the second ranking team leader. The other heavy moved up, and Korwin saw that they were missing two members, one from each team. When they moved up to his position, he shouted over the fire, "Up ahead, about twenty-five feet, is an open door! You can see them running in there for cover! It goes into a U-shaped art gallery that exits down the hall a bit further. The hall in there is about twenty feet wide, and twenty yards long! Follow that through and push the Imps that are covering in there out the other side. We'll move up to the other doorway, clearing Imps as we go, and we'll meet up on the other side!"

Sgt. Eckra, the team leader of Team 4, shouted, "How the hell do you know all this?"

Korwin grinned and yelled back, "I took the tour! Go!" He watched as Eckra led her heavy team off along the hallway, and he shouted, "Suppressing fire!" Drendel's and Korwin's teams lit up the Imps that were coming down the hallway, dropping several before they could reach the relative safety and cover of the gallery's far entrance. Eckra's heavy moved to the closer one under the heavy suppressing fire that Team's 1 and 8 were laying down. Eckra threw a grenade through the doorway, and waited for it to explode. As soon as the bright red flash of expanding plasma had dissipated, Eckra and her team rushed through the door rifle's blazing.

Drendel yelled, "Keep moving, keep moving!" Korwin and his teammates began moving forward through the hall, and Korwin felt his guts churning as the realization that he had no cover flashed through his mind. Further though was prevented by an Imp almost making it to the E-Web. It took three to properly operate, but Korwin wasn't taking any chances. He fired six shots at him, hitting him in the legs, and forcing him to crawl back towards the safety of the gallery door. "Magic!" Drendel called.

Korwin looked at his Patrol leader, and nodded as he signaled for him to secure the E-Web. Drendel's squad continued providing cover fire, and Korwin led his squad up to the Imp infantry's most deadly blaster weapon. The weapon was very large, and had to be mounted on a tripod that was quite large in itself. There was a large power cable that attached to what was basically an enormous, self-charging energy cell. This provided the three man E-Web team with a source of nigh continuous firepower, limited only by the period of time needed to cool down should it overheat. It never needed to be reloaded, never ran out of ammo. Kreth and Kierse and Avery broke it down, Avery shouldering the weapon itself, Kierse taking the heavy energy box, and Kreth taking the tripod. Taking up their normal weapons, they laid down covering fire for Drendel's squad to come even with them. The fighting was still raging fiercely inside the gallery when the reached the far door, and Drendel motioned for Korwin's squad to cover the hall while he led his in to assist Team's 4 and 6.

Korwin dropped into a crouch, and was relieved to see that no more Imp's seemed to be moving down the hall from either direction. Still, the sounds of fierce fighting could be heard on the adjacent floors, and they knew that nothing had calmed in the least. Within moments of Drendel's squad entering the gallery, the fighting was done, as they caught the unprepared Imp's in a pincer. Drendel's squad, and the eight surviving members of Teams 4 and 6 exited the gallery doors, and they moved down the remainder of the hallway. It turned right after almost a hundred yards, and the stopped before rounding the corner. They peeked around, and saw another heavy, from P Company, coming down the hall from the other direction. Korwin waved his hand at them, and the stopped, standing stone still. He carefully stepped out, and they relaxed their guard. The P Company unit had stopped near a large set of gracefully curving stairs that led into a large foyer. They were nearing the throne room.

The S Company teams moved up to their position, and the P Company heavy leader signaled that there were Imps in foyer below, seventeen of them, and that they were unaware of the proximity of the Larry's. Korwin nodded, and turned to Drendel for orders. Drendel, who outranked all present, signaled for Korwin's squad to keep below the top of the handrail, beneath which was a small wall, and to get near the bottom, and to wait for the grenades to blow. Korwin led his squad down stairs, all of them keeping their heads beneath the top of the short wall, their footsteps making no noise as they ghosted towards the richly decorated foyer below.

He stopped short of the end of the stairs, and breathed slowly and shallowly, so as not to give away his presence. He began counting, waiting for the grenades to go off. He got to nine before a series of explosions, so close together that he couldn't count them, echoed through the foyer. Korwin and his team stood, exposing themselves from the waste up, and began firing on the Imps. The after-echoes of the grenades exploding, combined with the sudden blaster fire from the top and bottom of the stairs, as well as from the few surviving Imps, created an ear-splitting din that almost instantly had Korwin's head pounding unmercifully. He squinted through the pain, and shot down a fleeing Imp. He saw another training his rifle on him out of the corner of his eye, and tried to get his rifle around. He wasn't fast enough.

The bold took him just under the arm, and ripped through the thick muscle in his armpit. He grunted loudly, and his knees grew weak. He fired at the Imp, but was unable to keep the barrel of his rifle up, so intense was the pain that rippled through his torso from the flesh wound. His shots missed, and the retreating Imp fired another shot at him. Korwin tried to move out of the way, but the shot still burned deeply across his ribs. He dropped beneath the wall, his breath coming in hissing gasps. He heard the footsteps of the other Larry's running down the stairs into the Foyer to set up a defensive perimeter, and grimaced as he tried to get up with them. The muscles in his upper left arm and his chest were spasming wildly, sending white-hot waves of molten pain rolling across his torso. "Medic!" He grunted.

Avery was the closest to him, and the best at the job, and he was grateful when he slid down next to him and began pulling open his fatigues by the wound. Avery worked quickly and quietly, injecting bacta next to both wounds and giving Korwin a mild muscle relaxer in his shoulder. He quickly bandaged him up, and asked, "You want some vision quest?" Vision quest was what Avery called their standard issue Eriminol syrettes for sever pain. He was referring to the effects the stuff induced.

Although Korwin was hurting, he shook his head, and said, "No, I'm good...I'm good."

"You sure, Magic?" Kierse asked.

"I'm good. Let's go!" He stood up, gritting his teeth against the pain this caused in his side, and hefted his rifle. The wound in his underarm burned ferociously, and he could feel the hot tingling sensation of the bacta injection doing it's work. As they moved into the foyer, the sounds of heavy combat echoed from three hallways that led into it. Five minutes later, heavy teams from both S and P companies began trickling in, most of them with at least one man missing. _Too much._ Korwin thought to himself._ This is too much. This is infantry work. There's too fucking many of us._

He pushed his misgivings aside when at last, all of Blue Patrol and Red Patrol of S Company had arrived, as well as Orange Patrol of P Company. Captain Borlin was at the head of Red Patrol, and it was the first time that Korwin had ever seen him in combat as a recon man. He had to admit that the look suited, all camoed up, with his warpaint worn proudly like a second skin. He pointed at the large doors underneath the stairway landing that Korwin had come from, and said quietly over their comm unit, "The throne room is through those doors. Lt. Iorl has already secured the royal party in their quarters, and is moving them to the hanger. We can expect heavy resistance in here."

Looking over at Korwin's squad, he said, "Azen, Kreth, Kierse, get that E-Web set up in front of those doors." Turning to one of his troops, he whispered something to the man, and he nodded and headed for the control panel near the door. As Korwin moved up with his four remaining troops to help set up the heavy support gun, Borlin's man opened the control panel and went to work on slicing the system. He nodded his head and looked over at Korwin, waiting for him to give the okay. When he was satisfied that the E-Web was ready to fire, he quickly reloaded his blaster rifle and nodded his head to Borlin's guy. He triggered the opening sequence, and the complex, and incredibly ornate magnetic doors opened.

Kierse had time to whisper, "Holy shit." Before Avery opened up with the E-Web. A hail of blaster fired poured from within the narrow archway that the double doors occupied, but Korwin and his troops stood fast, returning the fire with equal intensity. The E-Web quickly cut a swath through the center of the throne room, and Avery continued to fire as more and more Imp's ran into his rather narrow field of fire. After almost thirty seconds of this, the Imps got wise. There was a sudden, deafening silence, that was broken moments later by the almost inaudible sounds of Stormtrooper officer's and NCO's issuing hurried orders. Korwin ordered his squad to break down their weapon, which took less than a minute. As they did this, Larry's crept up the small entryway into the throneroom, staying just out of sight of the Imps beyond the threshold.

Korwin directed his troops to move up, and as they reached the threshold, Borlin commed, "Attack."The Larry's on either side of the entryway burst into the room, hurling grenades and firing their blasters, and Korwin watched as four were gunned down right away. His three teammates hurried to set up the E-Web under the rather thin cover fire that was being provided them, and miraculously, none of them were hit while doing so. Avery now had the entire breadth of the throne room to fire on, and he quickly sprayed the large area down from one side to the other. Imps dropped to the ground, or dove behind the various improvised barricades they'd set up, giving the Larry's time to pour forth into the room and move up to the nearest barricades.

As Avery laid down an unrelenting field of heavy fire, Korwin moved off with the other Larry's to clear the barricades and cover points. Most of them were overturned desks and tables, some scraps of durasteel held up by blocks of ferracrete. He came to the first one, and as he dashed around the side, he found three Imps crouching with their backs to it, their heads ducked low. His face set in an emotionless mask, and he opened fire, spraying the three closely-grouped stormtroopers with an entire blaster pack. He ejected the empty blaster pack, inserted his full one, and primed it. He and the other Larry's swept through the room, following the swath of death caused by Avery's E-Web, killing the Imps as the tried to rise from cover. After almost five minutes, the last shot echoed through the room. An eerie silence took hold for almost a minute, before the first pained groan of a wounded soldier sounded out.

Borlin called to Iorl to let him know that they'd secured the throne room. Reports began flooding in from the various area's of the palace that everything was clear. Once Borlin was sure that everything was in order, he commed Command to tell them that the palace was secure. When he was finished, he stood up, and said, "Okay, listen up. The palace is secure, as we all know, but we're far from finished here. Take fifteen minutes, then move out and collect your dead and badly wounded. Our folks just landed on the other side of the city, and word is they're taking a beating. This city is crawling with Imps, so be on your toes. That's all." He dispatched his squad to get the E-Web facing into the foyer, and then they settled down to rest as well.

Korwin walked to the stairs that led to the raised dais that the throne sat on, and gingerly sat down on them. He closed his eyes and sighed, before shaking his head. His wounds were hurting, but he still work to do. He dropped his field pack, and grabbed his canteen. He unscrewed the cap and raised the vessel to his lips. As the cool, clean water washed down his throat, he heard a young woman's voice rise softly in a melancholy song. He couldn't understand the words, as it was an alien language that he did not understand. But the feeling that it conveyed was unmistakable. It was a lament. No one in the throne room spoke as her voice soared through the stone and timber eaves of the ancient palace center. Her rich alto pierced Korwin to his core, and he found himself praying silently as she was so obviously doing in her song. He prayed for Memlo, and for the souls of the other Larry's that had already been lost. As the soldier finished her song, Korwin stood slowly, and said, "Let's go get our boy."

His squad stood with him, and they were about to walk away from the dais, when they heard a low grown from their left. Korwin looked, and saw a stormtrooper lying on his back, both of his legs pulped and burned from the impact of E-Web bolts. He reached up slowly, but said nothing. Korwin stared at the badly wounded trooper, but did not go to him. Finally after what seemed an eternity, Avery kneeled down next to him. He reached to the Imps utility belt, his hand going to an open pouch. Inside was a small holoframe, which he removed and turned on. A holo of a smiling woman and two golden-haired toddlers appeared, and Korwin found himself unable to speak. Avery took the Imp's hand and pressed the holo into it, and then reached up and removed his helmet, revealing a young man who appeared to be in his mid-twenties. He had the same golden hair as the children in his holo. Korwin and his squad stood by as Avery, with great care, removed the stormtroopers leg armor. The man had tears in his eyes, and he clutched the small holoframe as if his life depended on it.

Avery began treating his wounds, quickly and efficiently, and Korwin heard Kreth whisper, "Azen?"

Avery didn't respond to her, but said to the Imp, "Relax. You're gonna be okay." He injected him with a syrrette of eriminol, and then looked up and Korwin. "Ya'll go ahead and get Memlo. I've got work to do here." Korwin glanced around the room, and saw that most of the wounded Larry's had already been treated. He turned back to Avery, to find him kneeling next to another wounded stormtrooper, removing his helmet and damaged body armor.

As Korwin and his team backtracked to where Memlo had fallen, he amended his earlier prayer, praying for the dead Imps as well. Looking at that holo, he'd been shaken. He was faced with the fact that no matter what kind of good he was doing, he was still making orphans. He thought of the young woman in the holo, and tried to imagine how she'd feel when she was told that her husband was badly wounded and was a POW. He tried to imagine how Eli would feel. As they came into the hallway that Memlo had been hit in, he saw his fallen teammate lying crumpled on the ground where he'd died. As he and Kreth and Kierse began carrying him back to the throne room for casualty counts, he tried to imagine how Memlo's mother would feel.

* * *

"S and P Companies combined took seventy-one casualties that first day. Twenty-six dead, forty-five wounded. It was the beginning of six days of some of the heaviest fighting that Alliance recon troops ever engaged in." Korwin sniffed lightly, and rubbed his eyes. "We lost a lot more before we finally admitted defeat and pulled out. Luckily, most of the palace staff was still in bed, or was just getting up. No one had made it our wing of the palace yet, that we'd seen."

Laina saved her information and shut down her datapad. "Why don't we get to the rest of the battle tomorrow?"

"I can live with that." Korwin said, forcing a smile and a short laugh. "I'll see you in the morning."

Laina smiled back, and said, "See you in the morning, Mr. Nalan.


	28. Soldier 23

Sorry for the long wait, but I was in Southern California for a while, and I've had some things to take care of. Here's the next chapter, finally finished. If anyone feels like they have anything to say, good or bad, drop a review. Those are always helpful.

* * *

Korwin stared into the camera and smiled, and then looked back to Laina.  
"So, are we ready to go?"

She nodded her head, and adjusted the stylish spectacles that perched on her  
delicate nose with one slender violet finger. "I'm ready when you are."

"Okay...let's see here." Korwin ran a couple fingers between his cornrows,  
scratching gently, and squinted as he thought. "Well, I remember that it  
took most of the morning to get everything set up. By mid-afternoon, we were  
already sending heavy squads and regular-strength squads out to engage the  
Imps in the city around the palace. My squad didn't go out until after  
nightfall the next day, thankfully, so we caught some shuteye before our  
first combat patrol."

"Did you get a chance to replace the team member you lost?" Laina hated  
asking questions like that, but they were necessary for the integrity of the  
interview.

Korwin blew a long breath through pursed lips, and shook his head slowly.  
"No...Borlin asked for volunteers for three night patrols, and my guys and I  
decided we'd go out without a fifth member. Replacements weren't due to  
arrive for ten days, and even then, nobody thought the battle would last  
that long. The Imps didn't have time to really fortify, they didn't have all  
those tunnels and secret bases like they did on Tatooine. With all that, it  
sounded okay, you know? We wouldn't be moving more than a few miles from the  
palace, we'd have an Army Skycorps box on standby, and if the shit really  
hit the fan, we knew there'd be at least two infantry platoons on standby to  
come and assist us. I volunteered us for the area to the southeast of the  
palace, where Eli's house was."

Laina raised an eyebrow, and asked, "Any reason for volunteering for that  
particular AOO?"

"Of course; I wanted to warn her what was coming."

"And were you successful?"

"Oh yes...but of course, that meant something had to go wrong later."

* * *

Kreth held up her hand for a stop, and glanced around the corner of the  
alley they'd been moving through. After a moment, she waved Kierse forward.  
He dashed around the corner, followed by Avery and Korwin. They moved to the  
next place of cover, a low wall that surrounded a large, imposing house.  
Avery glanced over at Korwin, his tan, black and gray urban greasepaint  
blending almost perfectly with his urban fatigues and making him tough to  
spot in the darkness. Normally, tan didn't figure into the equation in an  
urban environment, but as so much of Theed's commercial and residential  
districts were constructed of tan stone, it seemed prudent. "So where is  
this bitch's house?" he whispered. 

Korwin risked a glance over the top of the wall, and quickly ducked back  
down. "Four houses down, on the right." Korwin whispered back. He pointed to  
his eyes, then gestured in the direction they were heading, before holding  
up both hands, eight fingers extended. He mouthed, "Shut the fuck up.", at  
Avery, and then hefted his rifle. Taking another quick peek, he was relieved  
to see the Imps he'd spotted turn a corner and disappear from sight. He  
waited for another minute, and then slipped around the wall, and sprinted  
down the street in a low crouch, staying close to the estate walls of the  
great houses they passed. When he reached the wall that surrounded Eli's  
parent's home, he skidded to a stop and ducked into the narrow alleyway  
between their house and their neighbor's. His three teammates followed  
closely behind him, and he finally came to a stop next to the section of  
wall that shielded the backyard from view.

Kreth raised an eyebrow, the gesture barely visible through the greasepaint  
and the almost inky darkness in the narrow alleyway. Korwin nodded, and  
jerked a thumb at the wall. After slinging his rifle over his shoulder,  
Kierse ran over to it and put his back against it. He bent his knees, and  
made a stirrup with his hands. Korwin placed his foot in Kierse's hands and  
let Kierse give him a boost up to the top. He grasped the top of the wall  
and pulled himself up and over, dropping silently to the soft grass on the  
other side. Kreth dropped down a moment later, and Avery paused at the top  
of the wall to help Kierse pull himself up, before they too dropped in.  
Korwin looked around, quickly taking stock of the situation. The yard was  
dark, and all of the lights were off in the back of the house. There was a  
single light on in the third story of the large, classical-style building.  
The garden lights were off as well, and Korwin wasn't sure whether he was  
grateful or not. Gesturing for his squad to lay out in a defensive perimeter  
around the yard, more out of habit than necessity, he slowly approached the  
sliding door at the back of the house. He was no more than ten feet away,  
when the yard was suddenly flooded with light and the door slid open.  
Korwin's survival instincts kicked into overdrive, and he nearly shouldered  
his rifle and fired a round. Luckily, he caught himself in time, and instead  
ended up frantically looking around for cover, as Corle stepped out of the  
house. His eyes met hers, and for a moment she was so still she could have  
been a statue. Then she opened her mouth and screamed. Only a short shriek  
escaped, as Korwin leaped over to her and covered her mouth firmly with his  
gloved hand. "Shhhhh...it's Korwin."

Corle's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates, and she closed her mouth.  
Korwin removed his hand, and she whispered, "Korwin?"

He nodded, and looked around the yard. He waved his troops out of cover, and  
they melted out of their hiding spots, trotting up behind Korwin. Corle  
looked around at all of them, and then slowly turned and walked back inside.  
She stopped in the doorway, and motioned for Korwin to follow. He did, and  
his team followed behind him, Avery coming in last. He shut the door behind  
him, and then said, "Holy shit! Look at this fuckin' place! Fuckin' huge!"

Korwin turned and glared at him, and then grimaced when he heard Karia's  
bewildered voice. "Corle, who is that with you?" She came into the large  
sitting room a moment later, and her eyes went as wide as her daughters had.

Korwin hurriedly held both his hands up, palms facing Karia and her youngest  
daughter, letting his blaster rifle hang on his chest by it's sling.  
"Waitwaitwait! Don't yell!"

She squinted her eyes a bit, as if she was trying to see through the complex  
patterns of greasepaint on his face, and then murmured, "Korwin?"

He sighed softly, relieved to have avoided another screaming incident. He  
forced a smile onto his face, and said, "Is Eli here?"

Karia's mouth worked soundlessly for a moment before she was able to  
formulate a response. When she finally did, it wasn't what he'd asked to  
hear. "Korwin, what's going on out there?"

"Is Eli here?" he repeated.

Karia nodded slowly, and said, "We're all home. Why? What's going on? We've  
heard sounds of fighting."

"Get everyone in the living room, tell them we're here. I'll be there in a  
couple of minutes to explain. I just need to talk to my troops." He looked  
at her beseechingly, and she finally nodded her head.

"Okay. We'll be waiting for you. I'm glad you're still okay."

"Me too." Korwin muttered as Karia left the room. He watched her go, Corle  
following her mother out of the room, and then he turned to his team. "Ya'll  
be respectful to these people. You especially Ave. No hitting on Corle, no  
calling them bitches. Got it?"

Avery nodded, and said, "Shit man, you ain't gotta tell me how to act."

Korwin shook his head, and said, "Just be cool, alright? I'm gonna marry  
this girl someday."

"It's cool man." Avery replied. Under his breath, he muttered,  
"Pussy-whipped motherfucker."

Luckily for him, Korwin either didn't hear what he'd said, or more likely,  
he'd simply chosen to ignore the comment. "Alright then...we ain't staying  
long. I'm gonna give them the heads up, and then we're getting the fuck out  
of here. We'll complete our patrol route, and head back to the palace for  
some chow and some shuteye. As long as everyone keeps their mouths shut no  
one's the wiser." Everyone nodded their understanding, though Kierse looked  
vaguely insulted that Korwin had felt the need to remind them that they were  
supposed to have his back. Korwin said, "Let's go."

They walked through the sitting room, down a short hallway, and into a  
large, open area that made up the enormous kitchen, the dining room with a  
table that could seat thirty-five, and the living room that could fit  
Korwin's entire extended family. Sitting in the living room, in a large,  
plush chair, was Eli. Her parents were on the large white couch, and her  
sister was sitting in another chair across from Eli. Eli stood up as soon as  
they entered the room, and she strode quickly up to him. She threw her arms  
around him and squeezed him tightly. He held back a wince as she put  
pressure on his hurt side. He slowly put his arms around her and hugged her  
back, but his posture was a bit stiff. He could feel his face heating, as  
his comrades watched the display of affection. He awkwardly pulled back from  
the embrace, and looked down at her. She attempted a smile, and said, "I'd  
kiss you but..." She brushed a finger across his lower lip, and it came away  
black and gray.

"I can't stay long." Korwin said softly. His arms dropped to his sides and  
he looked around at his teammates. "Why don't you sit down Eli. I have to  
say some things, and you're not gonna like it." Her face took on a rather  
hurt and confused expression, and she walked slowly back to her chair.

Kreth glared at Korwin, and dug her elbow hard into his ribs. "Dickhead."  
she said quietly. Stepping forward, she said, "I'm really sorry about that."  
She looked back at Korwin, and mouthed, "Let me talk." Turning back to the  
assembled family, she said, "My name is Corporal Danna Kreth, and I've known  
Magic..I mean, Korwin, for a couple years now. He gets a little jumpy on  
ops." Taking a deep breath, she said, "We're an LRIS team from S Company,  
Recon. Two companies of recon troops landed in the jungles and swamps of  
Naboo late last night, and we attacked the palace early this morning. We  
took it back from the Imps with no loss of civilian life, and the royal  
family is currently safe. Most of the fighting you've heard has been from  
the other side of the city, where several Allied infantry and armored  
divisions have landed and are engaging the Imps. We're here to warn you."

Verus leaned forward, and said, "Is this your mission? To warn the  
civilians?"

Korwin shook his head, and said, "No sir. We're not supposed to be here."  
His reply was terse, and Verus was slightly taken aback at the short, and  
almost formal manner in which his future son-in-law spoke to him. "You need  
to get food and water together, get everything you'll need for a stay of at  
least three weeks, lock your home up tight, and go into the wine cellar.  
I'll give you a longwave comlink, tuned to my squads frequency. Do not call  
me. Ever." He said this firmly, looking at Eli. She looked even more hurt  
than she had before, and her eyes were beginning to tear up. Korwin kicked  
himself mentally, and tried to force himself out of combat mode. Softening  
his tone, he said, "Keep the volume low. I'll call you when you can come  
out."

Eli stared at him, and whispered, "Why is this happening?"

"I don't know baby. I'm sorry." He walked into the living room, and crouched  
down next to Eli's chair. She looked down at him, and then cocked her head  
slowly to the right. "You're hurt." She said, and he lifted his arm a bit.  
It produced a slight sting, but he gave no reaction.

"It's not bad." He replied, trying to smile at her. He found it difficult to  
do.

"I thought there were supposed to be five of you." She murmured. Her eyes  
swept the room, taking note of each face there.

Each of the soldiers in the room looked to the floor, Korwin included, but  
none of them responded. Korwin looked up first, and said, "There's gonna be  
a lot of fighting going on in these streets very soon. I want you in the  
cellar, because a stray blaster bolt could come through a window, or a badly  
aimed artillery shell could strike the house." He grasped one of her  
slender, lightly tanned hands in his larger, gloved ones and said, "I need  
to know you're safe before I can leave, do you understand?"

Eli nodded her head, and replied, "Okay." She looked at her family, and  
said, "We should hurry." She stood from her chair, and her family members  
followed suit.

Verus reached out and squeezed Kreth's shoulder as he passed by her on his  
way to their kitchen. "Thank you for coming and warning us."

Kreth pointed over to Korwin, who stood in the living room, quietly  
overseeing the Orlane family's hurried preparations. "Thank Magic."

Each of the family did, in their own way, before the small team of elite  
soldiers saw them into the deep wine cellar and shut the door on them.  
Korwin grit his teeth hard, and said, "Let's move out. We've got work to  
do."

The larrys exited the compound as quietly as they'd entered, and made their  
way to the mouth of the alley. Kreth checked the street, then quickly ducked  
back, and pointed to her eyes. Gesturing towards the palace end of the  
street, she held up eight fingers. Korwin nodded his head, and looked back  
down the alley. Deciding that being stuck in a bottlenecked alley wasn't the  
most advantageous way to start an ambush, he motioned for Kreth to take them  
down the alley. He was sure that they could kill all of them, but he wasn't  
sure that they wouldn't kill a few of his guys as well. They would look for  
another opportunity in the public gardens. Moments later, eight Imperial  
Stormtroopers walked past the mouth of the alley, unmolested and blissfully  
unaware of how close they'd come to dying for their Emperor.

Korwin kept his eyes peeled and his ears open, trying to watch for anything  
out of the ordinary as they passed from one alleyway to the next, over  
estate walls and through backyards, silent and invisible as ghosts. It took  
them nearly three hours of sneaking around to reach the gardens. There had  
been surprisingly little activity reported in that area, but Korwin had a  
feeling that the spot would yield a good body count. He motioned for  
everyone to stay put, and slowly crept through the gap in the large wall  
that led into the great gardens. A ten foot walkway lay between him and the  
nearest cover of a tall hedgerow. The hedge had tiny, bell-shaped flowers  
growing all around it, each one faintly glowing with a soft blue light, and  
he grimaced at the display. He'd been here before, with Eli, and had found  
the place pleasing then. Now, it was painful to look at. Their camouflage  
was not exactly suited for Nabooan Moonbells.

He crawled on his belly over to the hedge, and pulled himself completely  
inside. He frowned with mild disgust as a spiderweb hit his face, and he  
reached up and pulled it's primary occupant off of his left cheek. The  
spider's abdomen glowed with the same pale blue light as the flower, and he  
suddenly realized that he was holding one of Naboo's deadliest animal  
denizens by a leg. A leg it was currently using to pull itself onto his  
glove. He glanced to his right, and slowly set the spider on a branch in the  
row.

He watched as it scuttled away, and breathed a deep sigh of relief. It  
didn't last long. It occurred to him that he had a difficult time telling  
spider from flower. They were designed that way, to fool their prey, as well  
as to evade predator's. He crawled slowly from the hedge, and checked his  
surroundings for enemy presence before checking himself for arachnid  
presence. Once he was satisfied that both the area, and his clothing and  
gear were clear, he stood and waved his troops in, but signaled them around  
the hedge, to the small pathway that led inside.

Once they'd all rallied on him, Korwin motioned for them to follow them, and  
took point. Avery tapped him on the shoulder, and he turned and raised an  
eyebrow. Avery leaned in close, and whispered, "I saw something in that  
building." He pointed slowly to a small building that lay on an artificial  
island in the center of one of the "lakes" that dotted the city of Theed.  
There was a narrow walkway out to the island, but the rest of it was  
surrounded by waters in excess of thirty feet deep. He remembered that from  
his last visit to the gardens. He motioned everyone to stay low, and pulled out his electrobinoculars. Raising them to his eyes, he focused on what he  
knew was a memorial to the fallen soldiers of Naboo during the Trade  
Federation blockade and the Clone Wars. He zoomed in, and waited for a  
moment, keeping his gaze on the front. He waited almost three minutes,  
before he saw a head poke out. His eyes widened, and he lowered the  
binoculars.

He gave the sign for commandos, and pointed down the hill. He brought  
everyone in close, and whispered, "We attack from the water. Follow my lead,  
and give the place a wide berth on the garden side. Wait until we're in the  
water to close on the building. It's open all the way around, but has large  
support pillars that should be more than enough to hide our bodies.  
Regrouping point is one hundred feet from the south end of the island, ten  
feet depth. Grenades first, then heavy crossfire...let's make a fucking  
impression."

Korwin took point again and led them back onto the path. Heading for an  
estate that bordered the large man-made lake he pointed to the courtyard of  
the home. He could see through the front gates, and there was a straight run  
to the lake from there. They just had to get over. He looked past the gates,  
down the small street that hit a dead-end on the lakeside. There was a wall  
that couldn't have been less than fifteen feet tall, but it looked like the  
best option. He waved his squad towards the wall, then pulled a small  
grapnel and climbing chord out of his pack. He threw the grapnel over the  
wall, and yanked hard. He felt it catch on a solid object, and tested again  
to make sure it would hold. When he was satisfied, he waved Kreth over the  
wall. She began climbing, and reached the top in seconds, followed by Avery,  
then Kierse, then Korwin. When Korwin was over, he pulled up his chord wound it quickly, before stuffing it in a small pouch on his utility belt. He  
clipped the pouch shut, and surveyed the area. They were roughly fifty yards  
down the shore from the island pathway.

Korwin nodded, and slid down the steep slope that went straight into the  
water. He slowed himself as he reached the water's edge, and pulled his  
small rebreather from his utility belt. Placing the device in his mouth, he  
slipped silently into the dark waters. He couldn't hear his team behind him,  
but he could feel their comforting presence. And he felt something else as  
well. Like they were being watched over. He smiled internally, as he thought  
to himself, I don't need no other sniper. I still got one with me. It was a  
sappy, sentimental thought, but he liked it. As he kicked slowly and  
steadily out from the shore, he slung his rifle on his back, and slid under  
the surface. Avery was soon right next to him, with Kreth and Kierse  
trailing behind. Growing up above the immense tide pools of Celka City's  
Northwest side, and living next to the ocean, they'd both been strong  
swimmers from a young age. You couldn't survive if you weren't. The  
rebreathers only made it easier. The water was so clear and pure that  
although it was a bit blurry, it didn't sting the eyes at all. Bless these  
eco-freak Nabooans and their clean fucking water. Korwin thought to himself.

The swim was long, and left them all a bit winded, but when they finally  
pulled up within a hundred feet of the island, they all felt the same thing:  
complete and utter confidence. Korwin treaded water with his legs, and used  
one hand to signal each soldier to a different side of the circular  
monument. He pointed to his eyes and then to the roof, reminding them to  
watch for attack from above while approaching the small island that the  
building sat on.

Korwin started in on his final approach towards the small, grassy shore.  
Once again, he submerged completely, keeping his depth at close to ten feet  
until he was forced up by the shore. Before breaching the surface, he  
floated for a moment underneath, watching for any movement in front of him.  
When he saw none, he pulled himself up along the bottom, until he quietly  
broke the surface on the edge of the shore. He looked around, and zeroed in  
on a broad marble pillar a scant twenty feet away. He caught sight of a  
commando approaching from inside, and pushed himself slowly back into the  
water. He pushed himself back along the bottom, down to almost five feet,  
and stared up at the Imp elite soldier. The Imp crouched down at the lakes  
edge and stared out over the surface of the water. Korwin watched, hardly  
daring to breath, as the Imp picked up a small, flat rock and skipped it  
directly over where Korwin lie in wait. He could feel himself becoming  
waterlogged and cold, and his joints were getting stiff, but he kept himself  
still. After almost four minutes, the Imp backed off, and then turned to go  
back inside. Korwin waited for two more minutes, and then eased himself back  
out of the water, and up onto dry land.

After pulling the rebreather from his mouth, he ghosted his way over the  
short distance to the support pillar, and flattened himself against it. He  
keyed his comm once, and waited until he'd heard all three team members key  
in as well before pulling a plasma grenade off his harness and keying his  
comm twice. He leaned out a bit and tossed the primed grenade into the  
memorial building, and said a silent 'sorry' to the vets whose monument he  
was destroying. Still, it was just a building, and there were elite enemy  
inside, unaware of their presence. Fish in a barrel. He pulled his rifle  
around to his front just as an ear-splitting quartet of explosions rent the  
pleasant silence of the late Nabooan night. Whipping the rifle to his  
shoulder, he leaned around the support beam and fired through the smoke and  
dust that the four explosions had raised, at roughly waist height. He heard  
the distinct sound of blaster bolts hitting stormtrooper armor, and kept up  
the fire until he'd expended a full blaster pack. A few bolts whizzed past  
him, and he ducked back behind the pillar and popped in a fresh pack. He was  
halfway around the pillar, about to return fire, when he heard a shout over  
his comm: "Blaster cannon!"

Korwin cursed loudly, but then grinned, as a large ball of blue light shot  
from up from the opposite edge of the building, up to the center of the  
ceiling. The resultant explosion shook the entire structure, and a loud  
cracking sound followed. Korwin knew what was coming, and ducked completely behind the pillar as the ceiling was destroyed and came down on top of the trapped Imps. He heard indistinct shouting from inside, and a moment later, he stepped around his pillar, and triggered several more long bursts of  
fire. Ducking back behind his pillar, he whispered into his comm, "Grenades,  
then retreat and regroup." He yanked a plasma grenade from his chest, primed  
it, and hurled it inside, before turning and running for the water. A few  
seconds later, his grenade exploded, followed shortly by another, and then  
two more. He hit the water running, shoving his rebreather in his mouth in a  
rush and splitting his lip as he did so. He swam hard for deeper water,  
keeping to the bottom as he went, and when he reached what he thought was  
about ten feet of water, he swam as fast as he could for the rally point. He  
had no idea how long it took him to get there, but his lungs were burning,  
and his muscles aching when he finally reached it. He was the first, and  
Avery came shortly after. Kreth and Kierse lagged by almost a minute, but  
made it in one piece.

Korwin gave them the "OK" signal, and then began swimming around the island,  
to a point where the lake fed into a small brook that traveled under an  
ornate marble footbridge, some two hundred yards across the lake. Once  
again, it was a long swim, but he didn't count time. He was aware of the  
spotlights that were turned on the lake shortly thereafter, but kept his  
pace steady, and his depth at a constant ten feet. When they came close to  
the brook, the water began getting shallower. Korwin stopped for a moment,  
and looked around. The spotlights weren't crossing their area much anymore,  
and he decided to push forward. He swam to the brook, until it became too  
shallow to swim, and then he waded, crouching, through the water, his team  
behind him. When they finally reached the footbridge, Korwin signaled a  
short rest and wait period.

They all sat under the pitch-black shadow underneath bridge and caught their  
breath, and listened for the sounds of any possible Imp patrols that might  
be looking for them, and keeping a close eye out on both sides. It certainly  
wasn't a stretch for the other Imps around the gardens to guess that they'd  
been in the area, so it paid to be cautious. Luckily, foot-traffic seemed to  
be light, with the highest obvious concentration being at the site of the  
ambush...which was presently well within blaster range. Soon after the small  
team of larrys had taken up residence beneath the bridge, Korwin began to  
get that odd tingling sensation he often felt when the shit was about to hit  
the fan. They needed to leave; fast. He wordlessly signaled the move out,  
putting Kreth on point. He could see by the tension around her eyes that she  
felt the same thing he did. They were always oddly in tune with each other  
in the field, and although Korwin didn't know what to make of it, he  
appreciated the nearly symbiotic relationship they shared when in combat.

Right now, however, their shared bond was telling them both that they were  
in great danger. They'd stayed too long...they'd cut it too close. As they  
crept quietly up the brook, keeping their heads below the banks, they became  
aware that the spotlights were no longer on the lake. They were now hunting  
for them on the land. Korwin's mind was empty of conscious thought, and he  
was guided by instinct alone when he suddenly swerved towards the bank, and  
began the short ascent up the grassy embankment. Kreth was following a  
moment later, with Avery and then Kierse coming after her. Korwin motioned  
for them to disperse, as a sudden panicked feeling rushed through his body.  
He watched them move to hurriedly obey his orders, when a spotlight suddenly  
lit up the brook and the edge of the embankment like it was high noon. A  
moment later, a high-pitched screaming sound rent the air. Korwin knew the  
artillery shell was on target. After a soldier's first few shellings, he  
could generally predict roughly where the shells would fall by the trademark  
screaming sound that they made when rifling in to their targets. They were  
primitive weapons that did little damage to modern armor, but they remained  
terrifyingly effective against ground troops.

He didn't bother shouting a warning; everyone else knew it was on target  
too. They all tried to make themselves as flat as possible, Korwin doing his  
level best to become one with the ground, when the shell exploded just  
behind them on the exact spot they'd just been. Korwin raised his head,  
relieved to discover that he was unhurt, and looked around. Everyone else  
was as flat as he was, as frightened as he was. He could taste the fear in  
the air, heavy and thick, and coppery like blood. Screaming loudly into his  
comm as another shell shrieked down at them, he ordered his squad to get  
moving. "We can't stay here, or we're all dead anyway!" They knew he was  
right; they were out in the open, lit up by a sun-bright spotlight. Korwin  
fought through the sudden terror that gripped his heart and forced himself  
to his feet. "Run Magic, run Magic, run Magic." he chanted to himself as he  
did just that. His three squadmates were running as well, and he kept them  
all in front of him, all of them in his sights. It wasn't like it was that  
hard to do. They were all in superb shape, just as he was, and they all  
could run like the wind. The shells provided good motivation as well.

The second shell exploded behind them as well, and the third fell almost  
instantly after that. They had the whole area zeroed in. The next one was a  
few seconds in coming, but it fell in front of them. Korwin dove the ground,  
but felt the sting of hot shrapnel piercing his right shoulder, almost dead  
center in his repeater scar. Luckily, he avoided anything worse. He stood up  
again, and was about to start running, when he noticed that only Kierse and  
Avery had stood up from the ground. He frantically swept his gaze around,  
and spotted Kreth some thirty yards to their left, writhing slowly on the  
ground. He was about to start off for her himself, when Avery hurriedly  
removed his grenades and extra ammo, dropped his plasma shotgun, and rid  
himself of his canteen.

All of this took him mere seconds, and he shouted, "I've got her! Get the  
fuck out of here!" He then turned his back on his Korwin and Kierse,  
sprinting with almost unbelievable alacrity now that he wasn't burdened with  
his gear. Korwin immediately rejected the idea, and chased after his friend,  
with Kierse hard on his heels. By the time they reached him, he was already  
shouldering Kreth's petite frame. He didn't acknowledge their presence  
beside him, but began running for the closest garden exit. They all knew  
that it would probably be crawling with Imps, and with their cover blown it  
was unlikely they'd escape alive. Suddenly, the shelling stopped. However  
none of them had any illusions that the Imps were done yet. It'd stopped  
because they were nearing the exit. The stormtroopers would handle it from  
here.

Korwin stopped his squad up just on the other side of the hedge than sat,  
knowing that if the Imps were smart, they'd just wait around the walls for  
the recon troops to try and escape. They were caught between a rock and a  
hard place, and the enemy knew it. Stay in the park for too long, and the  
shelling would resume, tearing them to pieces before too long. They'd been  
extraordinarily lucky as of yet. Leave the park, and be immediately mowed  
down by what was probably a fairly small unit of Imps, but with some fairly  
large guns. Luckily, Korwin wasn't stupid either. Switching his comm channel  
over to the palace CP, he whispered, "S Company, Blue 8 here. Have  
encountered heavy artillery fire in gardens. One down. Requesting immediate  
infantry support and a ride home."

"Copy that Blue 8, what's your current position?" Came the tinny,  
disembodied voice in his earpiece.

"Northern side of the garden, approaching the streets. Be advised, heavy  
resistance expected."

"Copy that. Will be in contact with the infantry and Skycorps."

A moment later, a woman's voice came through his earpiece. One he  
recognized. "I've got my best platoon on the way as we speak, and Skycorps  
has another box for you."

What the fuck? Korwin thought to himself. "Melara? Is that you?"

"Got it in one...although, you're not supposed to use names over the comm  
units. Security issues and all that." She said, a smile in her voice.

"I'll be glad to see your folks when they get here. Blue 8 out."

"Copy that, over and out. Keep your head up."

Korwin glanced over at Avery, who was still holding Kreth, and said, "Yeah."  
Before ending communications. Now that he had time to get a closer look, he  
saw that Kreth wasn't in a good way. Her face had blood all over it, and her  
hair was sticky with the stuff. She wan't moving anymore, or making any  
sound, and Korwin felt his heart lurch into his throat.

His eyes met Avery's, but Avery just gave him the thumbs-up sign, and waited  
for his go. They knew that the box and infantry support wouldn't be long in  
coming, but they also knew that the Imps were already there; they could hear  
their footsteps on the other side of the stone wall that separated the great  
gardens from the broad street outside. Only a couple minutes later, Korwin  
heard a sudden rush towards the un-gated opening in the wall. He raised his  
rifle to his shoulder. When the first stormtroopers burst into view, some  
fifteen yards away, Korwin opened fire without hesitation, cutting the first  
two down before they'd had a chance to spot the relatively unhidden larrys.  
A moment later, a plasma grenade exploded near the entrance, courtesy of  
Kierse, sending stormtroopers flying. The light repeating blaster that  
Kierse had chosen as his primary for the op joined Korwin's rifle a moment  
later, and they made quick work of nearly fourteen of the enemy.

The Imps stopped throwing themselves through the obviously dangerous  
entrance, and Korwin held his breath, waiting to see what they'd do. It  
wasn't ten seconds before he had his answer. A veritable storm of grenades  
flew over the wall, and Korwin shouted "Move!" They all ran as far as they  
could in three seconds, and then dropped flat, Avery going down on top of  
Kreth. Being that he was carrying his teammate still, Avery had been the  
slowest of them, and Korwin winced when he heard him growl at the sudden  
pain. Avery almost never gave any reaction to being wounded. It was like he  
was impervious to pain; not this time though.

Korwin stood up slowly, his ears aching from the sounds of grenade  
explosions, on top of the sharp ring that was still present after the  
shelling just minutes earlier. He turned, and his eyes popped at the sight  
of what seemed to be a horde of Imps pouring into the gardens from the  
streets outside. He threw a grenade of his own, and then dropped to one knee  
and began methodically picking them off, knowing that it wouldn't be enough.  
His newly wounded shoulder was bleeding freely now, and he could feel his  
arm and his hand becoming slick with the stuff. A shot grazed his left knee,  
just on the outside, and he whipped his rifle around and blasted the Imp  
who'd done it. Kierse was prone, firing on full automatic with his light  
repeater mounted on it's short bipod. He swept the squad support weapon  
methodically across the stormtroopers near the entrance, mowing down nearly  
a dozen Imps in the first volley of high-powered bolts, before taking a  
couple seconds off the trigger. Korwin followed his lead in giving his  
trigger a bit of slack, to let the barrel and firing mechanism cool for a  
moment, and to acquire a new target, before dropping the next Imp, and the  
three next to him with several well placed shots to the torso each. Korwin  
and his team were faring well, and were giving a good account of themselves,  
but he knew they wouldn't last much longer.

Avery had taken cover behind a small stone picnic table that sat along the  
main wall, with Kreth laid out behind and beneath him. He had taken his  
blaster pistol out, and was placing careful shots into single stormtroopers,  
dropping one with almost every shot. Still, it wasn't enough. Even with  
Kreth it wouldn't have been enough. Maybe not even with Memlo, or Haslin. In  
his minds eye, an image of Eli sat prominently, smiling sadly at him. I  
can't believe I'm going to die this close to her. Korwin thought to himself  
as he felt another bolt graze his right arm. He stood and ran in a crouch  
towards the cover of a Kurani tree trunk, ducking down just in time to avoid  
a nasty headshot. The bolt sizzled into the heartwood of the tree, and  
Korwin could hear the sap boiling inside the tree as several more blaster  
bolts slammed home. He pulled another grenade from his harness, primed it,  
and threw it towards the entrance. "Grenade!" He shouted, to warn his own  
troops. The grenade exploded, but he wasn't able to watch it. The moment  
he'd exposed himself, he'd been aware of a sudden hail of blaster bolts  
headed his way. He'd quickly made himself less available as a target,  
getting completely behind the tree and hunkering down low.

"Where's that fucking box?" He whispered, although he couldn't hear himself  
over the din of combat. As if a prayer had been sent and then answered,  
Korwin heard the loud engine wash of several approaching boxes, followed  
shortly after that by the deep, punchy voices of the heavy repeating blaster  
rifles that sat in the doorways of each box. He whooped for joy, and  
shouted, "Get those motherfuckers! He leaned around the tree and fired off a  
few rounds. A moment later, his earpiece crackled to life.

"The cavalry has arrived! You were pretty easy to find; thanks for making  
things simple for us." Another voice he recognized.

"Farrayn, you beautiful motherfucker, I'll give you every paycheck the Army  
gives me if you guys get us out of this shit alive!" Korwin shouted into his  
comm, laughing all the while.

"Roger that, Magic. You kids run along, we'll take care of it for you." Even  
as Farrayn spoke, the sounds of fighting intensified outside the walls, as  
the infantry landed and took cover on the opposite side of the street,  
setting up a heavy stream of constant fire on the Imps. Meanwhile, their  
boxes lifted off and began gunning for the Imps on both sides of the wall.  
Korwin turned his head, and saw an empty box circling overhead. He fired  
several more rounds at the Imps, and then shouted as loudly as he could,  
"Fall back, fall back!"

Under the heavy cover fire provided by the circling infantry boxes, as well  
as the infantrymen themselves, Korwin's squad turned and made a mad dash  
towards the next nearest exit. When they were almost halfway there, their  
ride flew in above them and flashed it's running lights. Korwin looked up  
just in time to avoid being hit in the face by the box's heavy tow cable and  
rescue harness. Korwin waved Avery over and helped him get Kreth set up in  
the harness. She was winched quickly aboard, and the harness was dropped  
again. Avery went up next, and then Kierse. As Korwin was strapping himself  
into the rather flimsy harness, Farrayn's voice came over his earpiece. "I  
hope you're up and running Magic, because they're still coming! We've got to  
get out of here if we're going make it out with you!"

As the winch jerked him quickly towards the box, he took in a sharp breath  
at the pain it produced in his previously wounded flank. Gritting his teeth,  
he said, "Good to go!" Luckily, the Imps seemed to be concentrating on the  
much larger force of regulars, as well as the two gunships. The larrys were  
now the least of their worries. Thank the gods.

"We'll be seeing you!" came Farrayn's voice. His voice was pitched a bit  
higher, and was much louder, bespeaking the enormous amounts of adrenaline  
that had to be pounding through the infantryman's body.

Korwin felt hands pulling him roughly into the box, and one of them clamped  
down on his bloody, shrapnel-torn shoulder. The box blasted off towards the  
palace, the door gunners both leaning far out the door and blazing away at  
the Imps inside the gardens. Korwin slumped back against the wall, and  
looked wearily at each of his squadmates, checking them out. Avery was lying  
on his stomach, being treated by a Skycorps medic, his back badly burned. It  
wasn't as bad as Korwin's plasma burns had been, but he knew the pain that  
plasma grenades could cause, and didn't think less of him for the grimace of  
pain on his face. It was hard to remain stoic through that kind of physical  
agony. The plasma burned long after the grenade had gone off.

Kierse looked none the worse for wear, only bearing a couple of nicks here  
and there. When his gaze turned to Kreth, he felt himself sighing sadly. She  
looked bad. Her chest was rising and falling shallowly, and she'd already  
been bandaged somewhat by the medic. The only wound Korwin could see on the outside was a large gash on her scalp, that was barely visible in the dim  
reddish light of the fuselage. That was where all the blood had come from  
then. Her eyes were closed, and if not for all of the blood, she could have  
been merely sleeping. But Korwin somehow knew that something else was very  
wrong. Something still didn't feel right. Hell, he wasn't right. He was  
starting to feel a little faint from all the blood he'd lost out of his  
shoulder. Still, it seemed they were out of the fire for now.

That was one of the closest calls they'd had. As the box began it's descent towards the rear palace courtyard, only minutes after leaving the gardens, Korwin felt the adrenaline slowly seeping out of his system, and he realized that he was shaking badly. He lifted his left hand and stared at it, watching numbly as  
tremor after tremor rippled through his body, causing his hand to shake  
violently. The shudders only produced more pain in his wounded shoulder. He  
tried to force himself to be still, but to no avail. Naboo wasn't turning  
out like it was supposed to.

* * *

"What happened to Kreth?" 

Korwin ran a hand over his cornrows, and said softly, "Danna lost her  
hearing as a result of one of those blasts that night; we were never sure  
which one. We talked about that fight a few years ago and she told me that  
she really didn't remember anything clearly after that artillery shell  
knocked her silly. Bits and pieces, images here and there, that's it. She  
was medevaced up to a hospital ship, and then she went home. I didn't see  
her again for almost...hell, ten years or so. Eventually, almost eight years  
after the battle of Theed, she got some kind of implants, and she hears  
better now than she ever did before...which is saying something, believe  
me." He smiled wryly, and said, "It was tough to lose her like that. But at  
the same time, I was just so relieved that she wasn't dead; I mean, I can't  
even tell you. And she got her hearing back better than before, you know,  
and has lived a great life. So things turned out alright for her in the end.  
It was kind of a blessing in disguise for her, I guess."

"I see." Laina noted this on her datapad, and then said, "Well, we've been  
at it for a while. Why don't we call it a day?"

"Sounds good to me. It's a nice day outside. I wouldn't mind getting some  
fresh air." Korwin stood up and smiled. "I'll see you all at 0900."

"See you then." Laina replied.


	29. Soldier 24

Well, here we are...the next chapter. This story has gone over better than I'd hoped, and I'd like to thank everyone for the 2000 hits the story has accumulated. Apparently there's a demand (albeit a small one)for something other than sappy, "angsty", ROTS Anakin/Padme AU's and divergences. Whew...dodged a bullet. Thanks to all the readers who have been keeping up with the story, and thanks especially to the reviewers, some ofwhom have done a great job of pointing out the little things that I can do to make this story better.

If anyone feels like adding a suggestion (no gaurantee that it will be used), or notices any inconsistencies that I need to fix, please feel free to let me know.

* * *

"Well Mr. Nalan...ready to continue with Naboo?" Laina asked spryly.

Korwin smiled pleasantly, and replied, "Whenever you are." He chuckled softly, and said, "My wife thinks this is the best post-war therapy I've ever had."

Laina glanced quickly at each of her cameramen, making sure they were all recording. Satisfied that they were, she asked, "And what do you think about that?" Her datapad was on, ready for a new day of information. To date, she'd compiled an eye-witness account of some of the grittiest, toughest, bloodiest action of the war. She knew that the Theed interviews were almost over. The rebels hadn't been able to hold the city for even a week. The other cities that had been invaded were similarly taken back by Imperial forces.

Korwin raised an eyebrow, then ran a hand over his cornrows. "I would probably have to agree with her. It's been...cathartic, you know?"

"Well, I'm glad to hear that. I'm happy to know that this is helping you." Laina glanced down at her datapad, then back up at her subject...no, her friend. It was impossible to not love these vets. Even the Imperial veterans that she'd met were hard not to like. They all had a special kind of wisdom about them. An almost ancient wisdom. Of course, many of them still had many demons as well, but that just made them all the more special. It was what made them tangible for the general populace, and was what would open eyes across the galaxy when the series of documentaries finally aired. Each vet would have an entire show dedicated to them. Certain parts of the interview wouldn't make it through the final edit, due to time constraints, and the educational narratives. But none of the content would censored. There would be real combat footage from combat cameramen who were in the campaign theaters that each vet had fought in, and in the case of Korwin's show, some footage of his squad on a combat patrol on Chandrila.

Shaking her musings off, telling herself that she was getting ahead of herself, Laina refocused, and said, "So, shall we continue with Theed?"

"By all means. After we lost Danna, we were assigned to guard duty around the perimeter of the palace. It was fairly quiet-relatively speaking-for the next couple of days. The infantry and armor on the other side of the city was still taking a pretty bad pounding, and hadn't made much ground towards linking up with us." Korwin lifted his water glass and took a sip. After setting it down again, he sighed, and said, "The patrols started heating up for the other teams as well. More and more sightings, more and more contact, you know? We couldn't figure out where they'd gotten all these troops from all of the sudden. They should have been locked up trying to stop the infantry and armor divisions, but somehow they were not only starting to push them back, but they were also encroaching steadily on the palace. It was bad enough then, but it can always get worse. And that's exactly what happened."

* * *

Korwin fought off a yawn as he felt himself being nudged awake. He blinked his eyes open and looked around. Kierse was standing over him, his face set in the same grim mask it had been since their last patrol outside the palace walls. He looked down at his wrist chrono. 0123 hours. Less than three hours of sleep. Still, that wasn't all that unusual.

Kierse said, "Cap wants us on the roof, on lookout duty."

This time, Korwin let the yawn escape without a struggle. "Which wall?"

"Southeast." was Kierse's quiet reply.

"Ave?"

Kierse looked towards their friend, leaning against a wall with a blaster rifle in hand. Since they'd been on palace guard duty, Avery had traded in his plasma shotgun for the new weapon. Outside of close quarters, the shotgun wasn't worth much. Unlike slugthrowing shotguns, the small energy lances that exploded out of the plasma capsules that the weapon fired never lost their energy, and continued traveling until they hit something. However, the damage they did at a distance was negligible, as they had spread out far too much to even incapacitate a stormtrooper, much less kill one.

Avery's eyes met Kierse's and he raised his eyebrows, before looking meaningfully at the door to the throne room. Kierse turned back to Korwin and said, "Come on man, let's go."

Korwin nodded his head and yawned again, fighting off the effects of fatigue as he slowly stood up. He grabbed his rifle and slung it over his shoulder, wincing at the tenderness still present in his underarm. Kierse and Avery fell in just behind him, and he asked, "Who's up there now?"

"On the wall?" Avery replied. At Korwin's nod, he said, "Eh, fuck. A few new guys, I think."

Korwin shook his head, and continued on. When they came to the broad stairway that led to the top of the walls and the flattened roof around the great dome on top of the palace, he turned towards the southeast section of the wall and set a brisk pace. He made sure to keep his head below the top of the wall, not particularly wanting to be an easy target for snipers. As they neared the area that they were to be watching from, he saw a group of five other young recon troops spread out along the wall, keeping watch with thermal electrobinoculars. There were no trees or buildings within six hundred yards of the southeast wall, so there was no way for the Imps to see them. At that distance, the light-absorbing properties of their fatigues made them nearly invisible to night-vision.

When Korwin reached the first troop, he said, "Why don't ya'll go inside and catch some sleep." The young man nodded, and waved down to his squadmates.

"Thanks Sarge." he said. His buddies all set the binocs down, their relief almost tangible, and started along the wall, heading for the stairs. One of them, the last one in line, stuck a deathstick in between his lips and lit it. Korwin was about to tell him to put it out, when a red bolt lanced out of the darkness and struck the kid in the side of the head, just behind his left eye. He dropped the ground, his body twitching. Korwin and all the others dropped, and he muttered, "Fuck!" Turning to glare at the squad that was racing back to their fallen comrade in a crouch, he said to them as they gathered around the body, "That's what happens when you're stupid. The fatigues only work if you don't do shit like that. No more deathsticks outside. They zero in on the cherry."

They all nodded silently, staring at their dead friend. Five of them...they'd made it this far full strength, only to lose a comrade because of his own carelessness. They waited until the body had twitched it's last, then picked it up and carried it away. Korwin watched them go for only a moment, before taking the electrobinoculars and slowly raising his eyes above the top of the wall. He scanned the binocs back and forth, trying to find the Imp that had pulled the trigger, but he saw nothing. "Fuck." he repeated.

Korwin, Kierse and Avery spent the next six hours on the wall, watching silently, not exchanging a word between them. During the first hour, they were joined by another squad that was at half-strength, thus making it a full complement of watchmen. As the early morning darkness passed into the hazy, orange-tinted light of dawn, Korwin kept his vigilance over the southeastern wall with his men. It was quiet all morning, and Korwin found that to be odd. He couldn't even hear any fighting in the distance. It was strange, but he didn't think he should be complaining; it hadn't been quiet enough lately. But it just didn't feel right. When his watch was over, and their relief came, they trudged exhaustedly back down to the throne room, where they were met by a frowning Captain Borlin.

"You hear that?" he asked tersely, his mouth tight.

"Hear what, sir?" Avery asked, an eyebrow raised.

Borlin stared past them, as though he could see through the stone walls into the city beyond. "Exactly." he said softly. "It's too quiet."

Korwin nodded absently, as his danger sense (as he liked to think of it) started with the same familiar tingle. "Something ain't right, that's for damn sure."

Kierse and Avery shared a look, and then immediately began to show signs of the same kind of stress that plagued Borlin. They knew that Korwin's instincts were second to none. If he didn't like the situation, you could trust with complete certainty that it was a bad one. It generally meant that the shit was about to hit the fan, big time.

Moments later, they were validated by a shout from the man on the radios. "Call from the west wall, walkers inbound!"

"What the fuck?" Borlin growled. Stomping over to the radio, he grabbed the small handset, and said, "This is Captain Borlin. What's going on?"

The voice that came back was a bit shaky, but was still at a reasonable volume. "Sir, I don't know if the Imps just abandoned the other fight, but they're coming...and they're coming now."

"What do we have?"

"Armor sir, and infantry following behind."

Borlin's eyes went wide, and he shouted, "Defensive positions!" As the other radio men went to work sending the call out to all the personnel inside the palace walls, Borlin got on the line again and said, "We've got men coming as we speak."

A moment later, another radio operator shouted, "We just got a sighting from the south wall as well!" Korwin heard no more, as he and his remaining two troops ran with the others towards the south wall. On the way out of the room, each of them grabbed a blaster cannon. They had been taken off of dead soldiers over the past few days, and were sitting in neat rows along the walls near the doors.

Korwin ran out of the throne room and headed for the south wall, moving as fast as his feet would carry him. His blaster rifle was slung over his shoulder, and he carried his blaster cannon in both hands, knowing that he'd not have much time to get his first shot off. His thoughts were confirmed when the palace shook with the first explosion of a turbolaser. As they reached the stairs and dashed up, they could hear the sounds of heavy repeating blaster rifles firing on full auto from the walls and the palace perimeter. As he reached the top of the stairs on the south wall, Korwin looked out over the streets just outside the palace, and a cold shiver crept up his spine.

The streets were filled with Imps, and as he looked up beyond the smoky horizon, he saw Imperial dropships bringing more, landing in the great market squares and gardens. And there were walkers. Dozens of them. Thankfully, they were AT-ST's not their larger, and more fearsome cousins. He cursed as he realized that they were well within range. Pointing to them, he shouted, "Shoot em' now, while we still can!" Several more turbolaser bolts slammed into the side of palace, one of them blowing a great hole in the wall barely thirty feet beneath where Korwin stood.

Raising his blaster cannon to his shoulder, he sighted down the barrel, zeroing in on a walker. After making sure he was braced properly, he depressed the trigger, and grunted as the strong kickback slammed into his shoulder, sending a fresh wave of pain through his wounded flank. The blue ball of concentrated energy streaked through the air, looking for all the galaxy like a tiny blue comet. It was a direct hit, and the walker exploded spectacularly, sending bits of durasteel armor plating flying high into the air. The heavy metal legs toppled over, landing on several stormtroopers. Korwin ran down the wall several feet, and fired off another round.

Avery and Kierse fired their first shots as well, but Avery's missed. Kierse's and Korwin's sent two more walkers skyhigh, and moments later, the heavy repeating blaster rifle on the perimeter below opened up on the Imps as they approached the entrance to the palace courtyards. About thirty feet to Korwin's right, a group of three recon troops manned an E-Web blaster cannon that had been taken in the assault on the palace. They opened up as well, spraying the streets and the courtyard entrance with heavy, explosive bolts of energy. At the same time, the walkers began opening up on the outer walls of the palace.

A flood of recon troops was rushing out of the stairway behind them, and several of them carried blaster cannons. Turning to them, Korwin shouted, "They're trying to breach the walls! Don't give em' any more entrances than they already have! Take down those fucking walkers!"

They did as he said, taking positions along the tops of the palace wall and firing their cannons at the walkers. Korwin fired on another one as well, and he watched in satisfaction as his shot struck home. Several others blew up as well, the results of well-placed shots from the other Larry's on the wall. He could hear the sounds of heavy fighting from the western wall, and his mouth tightened into a thin line. They had to repel this assault fast. These walls weren't made to withstand this kind of assault.

Turning to the E-Web crew, he yelled, "Let them get to the courtyard entrance!"

"What?" shouted the man firing, incredulously.

"It's a bottleneck! Let them get in there, and then let them have it! If they're gonna get in, I want them climbing over a pile of their buddies corpses to do it!"

"Whatever you say Sarge!" shouted the corporal, a newer P company troop.

Moving to another position on the wall, Korwin took his fourth, and then his fifth and final shot with his blaster cannon. The first one struck the intended target, immolating the cockpit of the AT-ST. The second missed narrowly, and instead exploded in the middle of the broad palatial thoroughfare, sending stormtroopers and body parts flying every which way, along with chunks of the stone-paved street. Imps began to boil through the main courtyard entrance, and the E-Web crew took up firing again, mowing them down as quickly as live bodies could replace the fallen ones. Within thirty seconds, Imps were climbing over a nearly three foot tall pile of white-armored corpses. The few that made it through were quickly gunned down by the Larry's that had taken up defensive positions inside the enormous front courtyard.

Korwin didn't take the time to watch, but instead dropped his now useless blaster cannon. He ran down the stairs, and made for the nearest exit into the courtyard. When he made it outside, he was greeted by a small storm of blaster bolts from a group of Imps that had managed to find cover behind a large marble fountain. He dove to his right, off the stairs and into a thick hedge. He landed hard, but rolled to his feet and dashed towards the cover of a makeshift barricade fashioned from sections of durasteel stood up on their edges and set end to end. It was only about four and a half feet high, but it provided enough cover to hide behind while reloading. Sliding to a stop on his knees just behind the barricade, he popped to his feet and unleashed a stream of bolts at the Imps that had first fired upon him. Avery and Kierse joined him a moment later, and along with the other Larry's standing behind the barricade, they opened fire as well.

Korwin's ears rang with the cacaphony of battle, and his blood sang with adrenaline, making everything that he saw and heard that much sharper. The Imps behind the fountain kept their heads down during the barrage of blaster bolts, then returned fire during the momentary lull in which most of the rebel Larry's were reloading. Korwin watched as two Larry's were gunned down by Imperial blaster rifles while he was reloading behind the barricade. Once a fresh blaster pack was loaded and primed, he stood up and returned fire, dropping an Imp before he had to duck back down behind the barricade.

As he crouched behind the cover of the durasteel panels, he heard a thunderous explosion emanating from the top of the wall. He stood for a moment and took a quick peek, only to be forced back beneath cover as a hail of blaster bolts was sent flying his way by the stormtroopers. He knew they were in trouble when the E-Web that had been set up on the south wall failed to fire again. Korwin raised his rifle above the barrier and squeezed off several shots, hoping that he hit something. Ripping a plasma grenade from his combat harness, he primed it and stood just long enough to hurl it directly at the fountain.

The grenade flew in a line drive, straight at the Imps that were still pinned down behind the water-spouting structure. He wasn't able to watch it explode, but his ears picked up the agonized screams of burning soldiers. He felt a grim sense of satisfaction at the pain he'd caused his enemies, and he stood up again and unleashed a firestorm of red death upon the archway that led from the main road into the courtyards. Several Imps fell to the combined fire of almost four squads worth of Larrys. The archway was nearly plugged with bodies, and it was quickly losing it's viability as an entrance into the palace grounds. Sure enough, the flow of stormtroopers slowed from a steady flood into a slow trickle, and then stopped, all within thirty seconds worth of fighting. Avery's blaster rifle had fallen silent, as he was busy tending to fallen rebels, but Kierse was keeping up a steady stream of fire over the top of the barricade.

Ever so slowly, the sounds of combat began petering out, and the Imps began retreating. Those that were still alive behind the fountain put up a brave fight, but were quickly killed without the support of their comrades. When at last the cease-fire had been called by an exhausted looking Lt. Drendel, Korwin stood up to take stock of the situation. Almost half of the rebels that had been defending the palace in his vicinity lay dead, with nearly as many wounded. Things were quickly taking a turn for the worst. He looked over at Kierse, and asked, "You okay?"

Kierse nodded, and said, "I'm fine. Avery's hit though."

"What?" Korwin replied, his gaze straying to his old friend. Avery was tending to a young woman that Korwin recognized as an LRIS veteran of Tatooine. Sure enough, there was a hole burned through his left shoulder. Still, Avery did his duty as a medic. Although all the rebel recon troops had received basic first aid training during their short time in the new recon school, Avery was one of the few tending wounds. Avery knew his job better than just about anyone else there, and he paid no heed to the wound in his shoulder. Korwin stayed in the courtyard, watching over the troops that were there, until Avery finally sat down to bandage his own wound.

Korwin sat down next to him and said, "You want me to do that for you?"

Avery shook his head, and muttered, "Just a quick fix. I still got work to do. You should go get some rest."

"How's your back?"

"Fine. Go on."

Korwin nodded his head, and said, "If you're sure."

"I'm sure. Go on, man. I'll meet up with ya'll later." Avery finished bandaging his wound, foregoing the eriminol syrette that would help dull the pain. He took a deep breath and slowly pushed himself to his feet.

Korwin stood up and said, "Later then." Glancing over at Kierse, he said, "C'mon Kierse." He set his course for the palace throne room, and didn't stop until he got there. When he arrived, it was to a chorus of moans and whimpers from badly wounded soldiers. The interior of the palace throne room was filled wall to wall with the wounded. Korwin strode past the numerous casualties and made his way to Borlin. The Captain was sitting on the stairs that led up to the dais that the ceremonial throne sat on, being tended to by a medic. He had a small blaster wound in his right thigh, and a bloody scratch on his right cheek. Borlin's eyes met Korwin's, and he said, "What's the situation from the south side? I haven't heard from anyone over there."

"We've repelled the Imperial assault sir, but I don't think we can take another one like that." Korwin replied, his voice terse.

"Casualties?"

Korwin wondered momentarily why Borlin was relying on him for the reports, and why he was putting so much trust in him. Then the moment passed, and he answered dutifully, "Almost half dead sir...half again as many wounded."

"SHIT!" Borlin shouted, startling a young wounded wookie soldier nearby. The troop roared at Borlin, his eyes red with rage and pain, and for once, Borlin kept his peace. He simply stared at Korwin, his eyes boring into those of the younger man, and he said, "I just got a call from Cpt. Melara of K Company. The infantrymen are on the verge of being overrun, and our armor division is nearly wiped out."

Korwin's mouth went dry at the news, and he asked, "What are we gonna do?"

Borlin shook his head slowly, his eyes closed, and he waved of the medic as she moved to begin treating the cut on his cheek. He said, "That's enough. I'm fine. There are people worse off." Turning back to Korwin, he sighed and said, "Melara is on her way, along with a couple of other high-ranking officers representing the infantry and armor units. We're going to have a quick meeting, and decide whether or not to pull out."

Korwin felt like he'd been punched in the gut. If they left, that meant the Imps would be free to take out their frustrations on the populace. It was common knowledge that such things had happened before. There was no reason to expect that it would be any different here. "Sir, I believe that retreat from the palace is necessary, but we can't just pull out altogether. The people here would be defenseless."

"Nalan, this is my home planet. The assault forces in my hometown have already pulled out, with ninety percent casualties. I know what you're feeling, and I know what you're thinking. But my first duty is to my troops, and to our cause. You should think about that. Dismissed." Borlin waved him off, and then turned to a young rifleman and began barking orders.

Kierse slapped Korwin on the back and said, "Let's go find a place to crash."

Korwin nodded and said, "Yeah." He shook his head slowly, and rubbed his eyes. Grief was threatening to overwhelm him as he stared around at the broken bodies of his comrades. For some reason, the anguish and pain was almost tangible. He could taste it, bitter and coppery like blood. Combined with the physical smell of death and burned flesh, it made his stomach roil. He shook his head again, and said, "I need some fresh air, or I'm gonna fucking puke man." His face twisted in a grimace of pain as his stomach constricted again. He turned and hurried out of the throne room, Kierse trotting behind him all the way outside. He dashed towards the gardens that overlooked the jungle and stopped, heaving and gasping in the significantly fresher air. There were no corpses here, and the wind was blowing gently from the direction of the distant lakes.

Kierse stepped up beside him and said, "You okay man?"

Korwin shook his head, and said, "We can't just leave. Borlin's wrong."

Kierse turned and looked out over the moonlit jungles and swamps that stretched out in a darkly grand vista before them. In the far distance, the moonlight shimmered off the lakes, creating a diamond-like sparkle that shimmered in an ever-changing pattern, like tiny stars trapped beneath the surface. After a few moments, he said, "If it's about Eli, I understand."

Korwin glanced at him, waiting for him to say something else, before shaking his head and muttering, "I'm sleeping out here." He laid down on a marble bench and set his rifle on the ground beside him. He closed his eyes and tried to shut out the images of carnage he'd seen during the battle, and in the throne room. He was unsuccessful. He knew he wouldn't be getting much sleep.

* * *

"I lied awake for hours. Until just after sunrise. I finally dozed off for a bit, but I was woken up by Drendel."

"What for?" Laina asked, her lekku shifting in a gesture of curiosity.

Korwin sighed, and said, "For preparations to pull out." He took a long drink of water, letting the water sit in his mouth for a moment before swallowing it. Once his mouth was wetted, he said, "They had their little meeting, secure in the palace, with no signal for the Imps to intercept. By the time I was woken up, the decision was made and the officers who'd come in by box were getting ready to head out and start their own extractions."

Laina recorded the information on her datapad, then looked back up at Korwin. "How did you react to the news?"

"I was pissed off. I knew that it was probably for the best, but I just couldn't bring myself to admit it. I really wanted to stay, see it through, despite the heavy losses we were taking. I thought that if we could get out of the palace and get mobile, we could start doing what we were really meant to do. We're supposed to be autonomous, and we're supposed to operate in small, stealthy groups. We don't operate in big units like that, sitting on the front line. It's unnatural." He chuckled, and said, "A lot of guys felt like I did, more out of stubborn pride than anything else. We were all pretty upset over being told to leave so quickly. I thought sure that if we left, they'd start killing civilians in retaliation, since their fleet wasn't mobile enough to chase us through hyperspace. I was worried about Eli and her family getting found and shot, frankly." Korwin ran a hand over his hair and scratched at the back of his neck.

"And you spoke with...Cpt. Melara, didn't you?"

"Yes...yes I did. I'd set to cleaning my rifle, just outside the throne room. I didn't really have anything to do while I waited for the order to move out, although it wasn't long before it came. While I was sitting there, Jenna walked by." He shook his head, and muttered, "It was an ugly scene. I was a complete shithead, totally unreasonable, and said some fairly insulting things, although I apologized once we were off-planet."

Laina raised her brows, and her lekku shifted in a small gesture of surprise. "Why would you act like this towards your friend?"

"Drendel told me that it was her who tipped the scales in the voting. She was the last one to vote. I was equally pissed at Borlin; he'd been the first to vote for leaving. A true recon man. When faced with overwhelming force, break contact as quickly and cleanly as possible and head to extraction. Live to fight and terrorize the enemy another day, and don't waste valuable military resources that are in short enough supply as it is."

"But you still left?"

"Of course. Half an hour later, boxes were lifting our dead and wounded down the extraction zones in the jungles and swamps. Within another half-hour, the rest of us were lifted out of the palace, and then put on a shuttle up to the _Liberty_. From there, we headed for a stopover in deep space, and then on to Hoth for a two month stay." He shook his head ruefully and girnned. "It was as miserably cold as Tatooine had been miserably hot. I mean, the average daily high was often no higher than -30 degrees, you know? At night, it could drop to -60. If it was stormy out, the windchill could bring it down another twenty to forty degrees. Getting caught outside in that was certain death."

"I take it you didn't find your time there enjoyable." Laina said with a small smile.

"Hell no! It was usually unbelievably cold _inside_ Echo Base as well, and you constantly had to be bundled up, or you'd be freezing all the time. Taun-taun patrols were miserable and frigid, boring experiences. They consisted of six hour jaunts around the perimeter of Echo Base, staring at the same icy, frozen scenery all day long. Then head back to base, take off the outer layer of clothing, get some hot grub, and go sit in your cold barracks room, playing sabacc and shooting dice. Mind-numbing. Absolutely mind-numbing."

Laina nodded her head, and said, "I'd imagine so." Checking her wrist chrono, she said, "Why don't we take a break, and come back in an hour or so."

"Sounds good to me. See you in an hour." Korwin stood up and exited the room, heading down the hall towards the lift. He shivered as he thought of his time on Hoth. He hadn't seen any combat there, thank the Gods, and he'd been well off by the time the Imps invaded. Still, it had left him feeling cold for almost a month afterward. To this day, he'd never been skiing.

* * *

Well folks, there it is. Hope you all enjoyed it! If you have any comments, positive or negative, please post them ina review. Thanks for reading this far, and hopefully there'll be a new chapter up within a couple weeks.


	30. Soldier 25

Okay...this chapter is short. There, I said it. SHORT! But luckily for you, I have the next one almost done, sitting on my desktop. Sort of. I promise, I'll have the next one up within the next four days, kids willing. REVIEW MY STORY...I BEG YOU!

Pathetic, ain't I?

* * *

Korwin sat across from Laina, his hands folded loosely in his laps, his legs stretched out comfortable in front of him. "So, Hoth huh?"

"Hoth." Laina replied, nodding her head.

Korwin shrugged, and said, "There's really not much to say about it. It was bitter cold, that was for damn sure. It was boring, as I said earlier today." He shrugged again, as if unsure of what else to do or say, before his face lit up. "There was one thing though." Frowning, deep in thought, he shook his head, and said, "No, there were three things, I suppose. The first was my nineteenth birthday. And what a birthday that was." He chuckled humorlessly, and said, "Didn't even bother to celebrate. There was no cantina in Echo Base. Everyone was considered to be on duty, or on alert. It was High Command's special little galactic hidey-hole, so there was no drinking allowed." He shook his head ruefully and said, "You know, it's kind of funny. I spent my seventeenth birthday, before I left home, locked up on a six month drug related sentence, and my eighteenth in the brig for fighting. My nineteenth, I spent frozen and breathing ice crystals, stuck underground, knowing that the only way I was getting out was if they were going to send me off to die somewhere. Three birthdays in a row locked up, one way or another." He smirked, and muttered, "Then there was the other shit."

"What happened?" Laina asked, maintaining her professional demeanor despite the abbreviated tale of woe.

Korwin sighed, and took a sip from his water. "A letter...and Dilan."

"What about him?" Laina queried, her eyes bright with journalistic curiosity.

Korwin chuckled, and exclaimed with a grin, "He left me for another squad, the fuckin' bastard!" Looking directly into the camera, Korwin said with a laugh, "I hope you're watching this, you two-timing schutta."

* * *

Korwin, Avery and Kierse were sitting inside the Blue Patrol barracks in Echo Base with a group of what the vets had come to call FNG's, or Fucking New Guys. They were all huddled around the back wall, bundled up as if they were going out in a snowstorm, playing a dice game called Skittah. Skittah was a betting game involving four six-sided dice, which was played by almost every young man in Tides and the Flats in Celka City. The object was to roll a straight flush, or four numbers that rose sequentially by a single digit. If you couldn't manage that, then you hoped for a match of three to four numbers. Failing that, you hoped that you had the highest number and no one else accomplished either of the first two objectives during their three alloted rolls. A tie-breaker usually involved a sudden death round, in which the first player to roll a winning "set" against the other or others won the round.

Kierse had learned the game a while ago, and had proven his deep Corellian roots by cleaning both native player's clocks each time they pulled out their dice. He had almost every paycheck that Korwin and Avery both had earned on Hoth in the last couple months. The new guys had quickly learned that a Corellian was a terrible person to gamble against. They always won. Or at least, they cheated better than anyone else. Although, how Kierse could be cheating, no one had yet figured out. After one last awful roll, Avery muttered, "Fuck this man. I gotta have somethin' to feed myself with when this war is over."

Kierse ran a hand through his buzzed red hair and grinned his lop-sided grin, saying, "Hey, if you get hit bad enough, the Alliance might pay you a pension after we finally get rid of that wrinkled white turd that calls himself the Emperor."

"Yeah, whatever you say. I ain't plannin' on gettin' that fucked up. No way, no how." He was about to say something else, when a familiar voice rang out in the barracks. It wasn't a voice they'd heard in a long time, but to those who'd heard it before, it was like scrubbing their eardrums with sandpaper.

"Sgt. Nalan, Sgt. Kierse, your presence is requested by Captain Borlin in his office." They turned, and Korwin's eyes almost popped out of his head as he laid eyes on Sgt. Nyre Dankin, who didn't look particularly happy to see him. The other NCO shifted uncomfortably for a moment under Korwin's gaze, and then he turned on his heel and walked out of the room, with not another word passing his lips.

Korwin turned to his two buddies, and asked, "Did I just fucking see him?"

Avery nodded slowly, his eyes still on the door, and he grated out tensely. "Motherfucker...yeah you did." A small, cruel smile spread on his face, and he turned to Kierse. "You know, they fixed his face up real good. Motherfucker _still_ looks like a Kowakian Monkey Lizard."

Kierse snickered at the statement, and said, "Still sounds like one too." Shaking his head wonderingly, he muttered, "How the fuck did he end up here?"

One of the new guys, a human whose name Korwin, Avery and Kierse hadn't bothered to learn, piped up. "Oh, you mean Sgt. Dankin? He's an REMF. He was here when we got here. Why, you know him?"

Korwin nodded, and said, "Fuck yeah I know him. He was on Tatooine with us for a while."

"How'd he end up in the rear?" the kid asked.

Avery grinned, and said, "He had a little...'altercation', you might say, with our boy Magic here. Borlin had him reassigned."

Another new kid, a young human woman with dark skin and coppery-red hair, said to Korwin, "I take it you don't like him much."

Korwin's face twisted into a grimace of obvious distaste, and he said, "Fuck no, man. I wouldn't piss in his ass if his guts were on fire."

"Oh." was her only reply, and Korwin thought that if she wasn't black, her cheeks would have been burning. During the short time she'd been there she'd shown an almost innocent, if somewhat irritating, propensity for correcting others' foul language. Language that Korwin, Kierse and Avery excelled at.

Korwin shook his head, and said, "C'mon Kierse. Let's go." Looking at his other squadmate, Korwin said, "Ave, watch these kids; make sure they don't hurt themselves."

"Shit man, we don't need no babysitters here. What's the worst that could happen? A coordinated Wampa attack? We live on a fuckin' ice ball man." He grinned as he said it, and waved his comrades off. "Get on, man. I'll talk to y'all later." Turning to the assembled freshy's, who had just arrived the day before, he asked, "Any of y'all know how to play skittah?"

Korwin and Kierse took their leave of the room and walked down the long hall to Borlin's so-called 'office'. To Korwin, it looked more like a janitor's closet that had a desk jammed inside, with barely enough room for two men to stand before the Company CO. "Gentlemen." Borlin said when they entered. Normally, this would be the point where he gestured for them to sit down in the chairs opposite him. However, as there simply wasn't room in his tiny office for any guest chairs, the two NCO's saluted and then stood rigidly until the Captain said, "At ease."

Both men relaxed marginally, their feet shoulders width apart, their hands clasped behind their backs. Borlin licked his lips slowly and said, "This place is damn fucking cold. Cold and fucking miserable. I hate it."

"Yes sir." Both men replied.

Taking a deep breath, Borlin said, "I apologize. I didn't call you boys here to bitch. I've got something for both of you. Sgt. Kierse." Looking at the man in question, Borlin said, "Sgt., I'll be frank with you. We're back up to full strength, thanks to the Recon training camp turning out the latest graduating class of recruits. The problem is, I have a lack of experienced team leaders." He sighed deeply, and Korwin thought that he'd never seen his CO look his fifty-two years more than he had in that moment. "I'm pulling you from Sgt. Nalan's squad, and giving you command of your own."

"What?" Kierse asked, incredulous. Korwin stared at Captain Borlin, his mouth opening and closing like a fish out of water, unable to form words. "Why?" Kierse's eyes were wide, and his face had gone pale.

Borlin sighed again, and exhaustion, physical, mental and emotional, was apparent in the sound. "I just told you why. I need good soldiers to lead our combat teams, and you're one of the most experienced recon men in the entire Alliance. I need that." Looking over at Korwin, he said, "I understand that this is tough for you too, son. But I need you to understand why it is I'm doing this."

Korwin just shook his head slowly, his eyes still wide with shock. "Sir, I...who's gonna replace him? We don't got nobody like him. I need him in my team."

"Nalan, I understand your concerns. Really, I do. But you're a smart, tough, dedicated soldier. I know that, given time, you can make any soldier into a true recon man. You're a damn fine soldier, and a damn fine leader. I chose you over a year ago to head up your recon team because I knew you would excel, and that you would make everyone in your unit excel. Anyone who operates under you is going to be a success, and will be thankful for the opportunity." He ran a hand through his graying blond hair, and smiled gently at his two subordinates. "Kierse, you're a top notch Larry, and a good man. Out of all the kids in my company, you're the one I most trust to whip these new guys into shape." Picking a slip of flimsiplast up from the cluttered surface of his desk, he handed it to Kierse. "This is a list of the four soldiers that you will have under your direct command, Sgt. Kierse. They are due to arrive here on Hoth tomorrow afternoon, coming from TC." He leaned back in his chair, and said, "You're dismissed Kierse."

Kierse snapped a salute to his commanding officer, then turned on his heel and left the tiny office. Korwin watched him go, then turned back to Borlin. "Sir?" he queried, unsure about why he was still there.

Borlin leaned forward again, and picked up a paper envelope. He looked at it for a moment, turning it over in his hands a couple times before handing it over to Korwin. "Dismissed." he said softly.

Korwin took the envelope, confusion evident on his face, and saluted the Captain. He didn't look at the envelope until he'd left Borlin's office, and when he did, he was glad of that. In the upper left hand corner, where the return address went, was a name he hadn't figured on hearing or seeing for a long time, if ever again; Haslin. He stumbled as he walked, overcome with shock, and nearly tripped over his own feet. He suddenly found it difficult to breathe, as an enormous pressure built up in his chest. He stopped, and leaned his back against the icy cold durasteel of the wall. He stared at the envelope in his hands, completely lost as to what the contents could be. He sighed, then pushed off the wall. He didn't particularly feel like going back to the barracks just yet, so he headed instead for the southern hangar bay.

Upon entering, he caught a blast of icy cold wind from the open entrance to the hangars. A small shiver ran up his spine, but he shook it off. Weaving through the myriad mechanics and pilots, moving to a small tool bench near an empty X-wing berth, he sat down and began opening the letter with shaking hands. After carefully tearing the top open, he slipped a single piece of paper out. It was folded in two places, so that it would fit in the envelope, and he could see the faint imprint of ink on the other side. Slowly, Korwin unfolded the mysterious piece of paper, and began reading the contents of the letter.

_Dear Korwin,_

_I am writing on behalf of my son, Seras. I first want you to know what a deep sense of love and respect he had for you and his other squadmates. He wrote often, and he almost never failed to mention what an honor it was to serve under you, and how deeply grateful he was for the opportunity to fight against Imperial tyranny alongside you. You must be a very special young man to warrant such high praise from Seras. He wasn't terribly effusive with compliments, preferring to show his appreciation for others rather than paying them lip service. I apologize; I digress._

_The reason I am writing is in regards to his last wishes. Shortly before he was killed Seras wrote a letter to us, telling us of a rather difficult situation that you and your family have been placed in. He wished that one day you would be able to see them again, and he told us how he intended to make that happen. Since he is no longer able to see this carried out, his father and I have decided to do it for him. We have set aside enough money to pay for your family's transport off of your home world, to where ever it is you wish to send them. I understand that it may be a long while before you take us up on the offer, what with the state of the galaxy these days. But the offer is there, and will remain so for as long as is necessary to see it through. _

_Seras was always a very generous person, always trying to help those in need. He used to give his lunch away to a boy at his middle school whose parents were too poor to send him with his own. He was always like that, even as a little boy; the selfless benefactor. But I'm sure you knew that. I can only hope that by doing this for you, we can give his spirit some measure of peace. We do this to honor his memory, and to honor the man that he respected and cared for so deeply. He spoke of you as a brother; I will think of you as a son. I pray for you every night, as I once prayed for my own son, and I will continually pray for your safe passage through the hell that is war. Good luck to you in your endeavors, and may the force be with you._

_With love,_

_Kasyra Haslin_

Korwin carefully refolded the letter and slipped it back into it's envelope. He slowly looked up, and took in his surroundings. The cacophony of clanking tools, whirring servomotors, hissing steam vents, and powerful sublight engines that characterized the hangar bays seeped back into his consciousness. He could feel a lump growing in his throat, and his eyes were beginning to tear up. He took several deep breaths, making sure that he wasn't going to cry. He was deeply touched by the letter. When Haslin had told him that he'd help him get his family to Naboo, he'd never thought it would carry this far. He smiled faintly as he thought about his sniper, who'd been killed by an Imp sniper in the dusty, winding, sun-scorched canyons of Tatooine. He remembered what Haslin had said to him on the day he'd decided to help his "boss" relocate his family. _We're recon boss. We never leave a man behind._ And now, from beyond the pale, his beloved friend was giving him a gift that he would never have the chance to repay.

"Thank you. Thank you so much." he whispered to his good friend...no, his brother. He closed his eyes, and for the briefest moment, he could have sworn he heard Haslin's voice whispering right back.

"_Tweren't nothin' boss."_

* * *

"That was one of the most emotional moments of my life. I still don't understand how I didn't cry. Thinking about it now...shit." Korwin wiped tears from his eyes, and smiled at Laina. "To this day, that's still the best thing anyone has ever done for me. I eventually met his parents, on a visit to Dantooine to see Kreth. It was...it was good, you know? It was good to finally see them. They made my life better. My brother and sister went to a good high school, went to university, and have led happy lives on Naboo. It's more than I could have done for them, and for that I'm eternally grateful."

"That must have been some experience, meeting them." Laina said with a smile of her own. "Why don't we call it a day, and continue on tomorrow?"

"I can do that." Korwin said. He stood up slowly, with a small grimace on his face, and muttered, "The old joints aren't what they used to be." He smiled again and sniffed lightly, before wiping away another tear. "I'll see you all in the morning."

Laina and her crew said their farewells, and then began shutting down their equipment. Another day had come and gone, and they were nearly halfway through his service time. Laina was stunned to realize that they'd covered so much already. In just a couple more weeks, the interviews would be over, and Korwin would be flying back to Naboo. He'd become a daily fixture for her, and one that she didn't mind at all. He had a grandfatherly aura about him that touched even her, and she found herself growing more and more fond of him every time she saw him. Shaking her head with a small smile, she muttered, "Never get attached to the subject of a story." It was a mantra that had been drilled into her head in journalism school, and it was an idea that she had completely thrown out the window in her time with Korwin Nalan. He reminded her a great deal of her late grandfather, with his simple wisdom and his easygoing nature.

She finished shutting her datapad down, and stood from her chair. "I'll see you guys in the morning." she said to her crew, before heading for the door. Tomorrow, they started on Chandrila.


	31. Soldier 26

Okay...a longer chapter in return for the almost painfully short chapter preceding it. I hope this meets with everyone's approval, and once again I ask that anyone who has any comments to post them in a review. Reviews are immeasurably helpful in the writing process, and are a great motivation for an author. Thanks for following Korwin this far, and I hope you'll all follow him until the end of the war. Enjoy.

* * *

Korwin walked into the sitting room with a smile and sat down in his chair. Nodding a greeting to each of the crew members, he said to Laina. "Sorry I'm late. Something _came up_ this morning." He grinned almost lewdly, and Laina was shocked that he'd speak to her so. Of course, he was an old soldier. She supposed that he was entitled to his odd moment of crudeness.

Shaking her head with a small smile, she said, "Of course Mr. Nalan. So, how are you doing today?"

"Oh, I'm fine, I'm fine. It's a lovely day, you know?" He rubbed his slightly stubbly chin, and said, "I believe we were just finished with Hoth." He shuddered, and said, "Good thing too. Even talking about it makes me cold."

"I can see that." Laina replied with a small smile spreading across her face. "So, on to Chandrila then?"

"On to Chandrila." Korwin cleared his throat, then took a sip of the ice water that sat next to his chair. Staring at the glass for a moment, he looked over at one of the assistants in the room and asked, "Can you get me some caf? I'm a bit tired."

"Of course sir." the aide, a young Shistavenen male, growled amicably. He turned and left the room, intent on his mission.

Korwin turned back to Laina, and said, "We got the call after a couple of cold, miserable months on Hoth. I can't tell you how excited I was to be getting off of Hoth. I'd never been to Chandrila, of course, but Jenna Melara had told me a bit about it. It sounded much better than the ice ball that we were currently stuck on, and I couldn't wait to get there." Taking another sip of his water, he set the glass down and said, "We were briefed in hyperspace, and were told that S Company would be headed to Chandrila along with the 1st Light Infantry Regiment. One of my first questions during the briefings for the invading units was whether or not the brass was going to fuck us over like they did on Naboo." He chuckled lightly, and said, "The young Major from High Command that was delivering the briefing seemed quite taken aback at this, although he was the one who had briefed us on the Naboo invasion. He should have expected the Larry's to take exception to that. He apparently didn't like the way I spoke about his bosses."

Laina grinned back and replied, "I'd imagine not. Soldiers are proud people, if I've learned anything about them."

"That we are, that we are. Anyway, he told us that we would be working in much the same manner as we had on Tatooine. I was ecstatic. That meant that we wouldn't be doing infantry work, as we'd done on Naboo. I firmly believe that we were utilized incorrectly and irresponsibly on Naboo, from Theed to Kaadara to Keren. On Chandrila, we'd still see some hard fighting, but High Command learned from their mistakes; unlike the Imps. I can't be too critical, you know?" Korwin ran a hand over his salt and pepper cornrows and said, "Despite everything that happened on Naboo, despite the losses we took as recon soldiers, High Command learned their lesson, and never deployed us en masse like that again. We were never again asked to assault and hold a position as if we were an infantry unit."

"How did Chandrila start then?" Laina asked, her datapad at the ready.

"With careful planning. We'd gotten intel that the Imps were mostly concentrated in the cities and towns, but that they'd set up several large infantry and armor bases in the areas surrounding Hanna City, as well as a few of the other larger towns and farming communities. We knew that they were well-armed with anti-air weapons, and that any major invading force would be facing heavy losses from them if they weren't neutralized. Our first job was to go in before the main force, scout out those bases, and paint them with laser designators for Y-Wings and X-Wings to shoot at with laser-guided ordinance, which is unbelievably precise. This would allow them to strike from just outside the atmosphere, so that they wouldn't have to worry about the enemy's anti-air turbolasers." Korwin grinned like a kid in a candy store and said, "I tell you...to this day, I've never seen a fireworks display that even comes close to what I witnessed over the first 48 hours of the Chandrilan Campaign."

* * *

Korwin sat on the dropship, quietly waiting for the red light to go on. He looked at Avery to his right, and his three new squadmates behind Avery. Private Danilo Hakila, his new demolitions specialist, was a Zabrak man from the Zabrak homeworld of Iridonia. Korwin considered himself lucky to have him, as Hakila had prior combat experience as a combat engineer with the infantry. He had been on Tatooine during the last months of combat, and had served honorably from what Korwin had heard. A soldier who'd both taken and returned enemy fire was invaluable in any conflict. In a special operations team, it was nothing short of a blessing from the gods. Most of the other squads had gotten nothing but fresh replacements who had gone straight into Recon/Commando school after basic training.

Private Cassir Exo was a human man from a small mining outpost on Zetir III, a planet of lush forests and broad, freshwater seas. He'd joined the Alliance infantry, but had heard about the recon school during his time in basic training at the small rebel camp on Dantooine. Before he'd graduated as a basic infantry rifleman, he'd applied for the Recon/Commando school, and had been accepted. TC was now used as the prime training ground for all Larry's, and he'd been sent there for his training immediately after his graduation from basic. He'd been assigned to S Company upon graduation from the school and his subsequent indoctrination into the 17th Infantry(Recon).

Korwin's final subordinate was Corporal Orosi Nallahar, a female Twilek who'd been born on Ryloth to destitute parents, but had been adopted by a young human couple on Coruscant. Nalla, as she was called, had no combat experience. She'd joined the Alliance as a Naval intelligence analyst, and had continued in that capacity for over a year. When she'd heard about the exploits of the Tatooine Larry's as well as those on other ground combat fronts, she'd decided to put in for a transfer to the Army.

Nallabeen one of those who was excited by the prospect of combat, and she was obviously excited now. Her vibrant turquoise skin was covered by green and black greasepaint, and Korwin had to stop himself from chuckling whenever he looked at her painted headtails. He'd never seen a Twilek in greasepaint, and the effect was striking, but amusing at the same time. She took almost twice as long as anyone else to apply her warpaint, due to the extra skin area she had to cover. Her lekku fairly quivered with anticipation, and she grinned a sharp-toothed grin at him when their eyes met.

Korwin smiled back at her, then checked his wrist chrono. _Shouldn't be much longer._ Korwin thought to himself. Nudging Avery in the ribs with his elbow, he said, "So you ready for this? Not gonna be a whole lot of cover down there."

Avery shrugged nonchalantly. "Wasn't shit for cover in the open desert either, and we still managed to do what we do."

Korwin nodded his head. "Just like that, boy."

"Just like that." Avery repeated.

And it was just like that; they'd go in and do their jobs. And their job was to kick ass. But instead of endless seas of rolling dunes, there would endless seas of deep green grass, broken here and there by thick terraces and hedgerows, and the occasional farmstead. They'd been briefed that livestock was going to be everywhere, and that the farmers of Chandrila generally let their animals roam freely about their lands, with only the hedgerows to stop them escaping. Fences were unheard of, and road systems were almost non-existent in the countryside. Cities were small and few and far between, and even the capitol, Hanna City, was supposed to be somewhat less than a bustling metropolis. For Korwin, that was all the better. That meant less civilians to worry about. He had decided during his short time on Naboo that he didn't like urban patrols. It was much tougher to go unseen, and the likelihood that civilians were going to be caught in the crossfire was very high.

Of course, the current mission was no less difficult. Korwin's squad was one of five that would be inserting into the vast Chandrilan countryside via HALO. Each team would proceed to an area that had been identified as belonging to the enemy, and would then scout the area for civilian presence. It was known that the Imps had set their bases up fairly close to the towns and cities which they occupied. It was a common tactic that they used to avoid Alliance airstrikes, knowing all too well their enemy's distaste for involving civilians in the fighting. But the Imps had yet again underestimated their opponent's abilities.

Korwin opened the top of his small field pack and checked the power cell on his laser designator for what must have been the hundredth time since they'd left the _Spirit of Alderaan_. Nalla glanced over at him and said, "I don't think the power cell is going to go dead. Those things can last for years."

"Still never hurts to check." he replied evenly. Closing up his pack again, he adjusted his parachute straps and rolled his head in a circle to loosen his tense neck muscles. Although none of them would readily admit it out loud, every one of the five soldiers in the small craft was nervous. For three of them, this would be their first special operations experience. For the other two, there was the knowledge that they would literally be completely alone on the ground, except for the other four teams of Larry's that would dropping at other locations across the continent that the major Imp forces were located on. For the first time ever, they'd have no way to extract themselves quickly from a hairy situation. They would be relying on their own feet as a means of breaking contact and escaping from any enemy forces they made contact with. There would be no box to lift them out of harms way until they'd helped the Naval fighter/bombers clear the way for a full scale invasion.

The pilot's voice came over the ship-wide comm. "Two minutes."

Korwin and his squadmates put on their flight helmets and strapped on their oxygen masks. Nalla's helmet was an unusual looking thing, with an extended cranial rise and two insulated sleeves for her lekku. A minute later, the red light came on. The five Larry's stood up and strapped their small packs to their chests, their rifles strapped to the outside of them with the barrels pointed at the deck. Korwin watched the red light as the ramp lowered, revealing the stark beauty of the Chandrilan sky at night. It was currently springtime on Chandrila, and the reports were that it would be quite pleasant on the ground, temperature-wise. Korwin thanked his lucky stars for that. This would be his first long-term deployment/posting that didn't involve him either being cooked or flash-frozen.

When the light turned green, Korwin was the first out of the small dropship. He leaped off the edge of the ramp and positioned his body for a long freefall. Whatever else he'd gone through, or would go through, during the war, he knew that this was certainly one of the high points; literally and figuratively. He absolutely loved the unparalleled sense of freedom he felt when he was jumping. Nothing else could compare. In an odd way, riding the currents of air to the ground far below almost reminded him of the ocean swimming he'd done as a child growing up near the ocean. That feeling of total weightlessness, and of being unobstructed by any solid objects was one he'd grown to love as a youngster in Tides, and it was even more pronounced when he was falling through the air. The only difference here, was that if something went wrong, there was no way to get back up to the ship. If his chute didn't deploy, he was as good as dead.

He glanced at the small altimeter strapped to his combat harness as he passed the twenty-thousand foot mark. Looking away as he broke through the thin, high cloud cover, he finally caught his first glimpse of the carefully cultivated farmlands below. Even under the deep, midnight blue sky on a moonless night, they seemed to glow green with an emerald vibrance that was almost shocking to his eyes. He kept his eyes focused on the ground, and didn't bother looking at his altimeter again. He would know when to pull his rip chord. He didn't know how, but he knew on an instinctual level that something would let him know.

He glided effortlessly down, letting the wind currents carry him instead of battering him, and reveled in the carefree feeling. After what seemed a blissful eternity, his internal alarms began going off, and he pulled his rip cord. His chute worked as advertised, the violent shock of the sudden deceleration snapping him from his euphoric mind state. He surveyed the grasslands below, and his keen eyes began picking out the tiny, ant-like figures that he thought must be the free-roaming nerf herds that he'd been briefed on. Five minutes later, his feet touched solid ground. He tucked into a shoulder roll, and came to rest on his back. Hurriedly disengaging his chute from his back, he pulled it in quickly and rolled it up.

Dropping his field pack from his chest, he stuffed the chute into the top and then resealed the pack. He unclipped his rifle and then shouldered his pack and waited for the rest of his comrades to rally on him. It was less than two minutes before all five of them were assembled in the same area, crouched low in the thigh-high grasses. As he glanced about himself, Korwin was suddenly reminded of the brutally hot grassy plains of Gnazt. What differentiated this planet from Gnazt was it's civilian population, and it's markedly more comfortable temperature. He pulled his helmet and oxygen mask off and dropped them where they stood. The chutes would travel with them, to be used again; if not by them, then by someone else. The helmets were simply too bulky and too weighty to carry along.

Korwin checked his small sattelite positioning device and marked the direction they needed to take to their objective. Making eye contact with each member of his squad to make sure they were paying attention, he whispered. "Single file; five meters apart. Complete silence from here on out. Exo on point." Exo didn't have the same unnatural instincts that both Kreth and Korwin possessed, but his eyesight was second to none, and he was incredibly observant. He'd been trained as a point man in Recon/Commando school because of his background as a subsistence hunter back on Zetir III. Exo moved up to the point position and waited for Korwin's order. Korwin gave a small wave forward, signalling for him to move out, and Exo began moving off in the direction of the Imperial base. Korwin fell in five meters behind him in the "slack" position, and Avery moved out behind him. Next came Nalla, and lastly came Hakila in the rear security position.

The first two hours were nice and quiet, the way Korwin liked it, and the only live bodies they passed were those of the nerf that seemed completely apathetic to the presence of higher intelligence in their midst. This was the closest that Korwin had ever been to the animals that provided meat and milk to trillions of beings across the galaxy, and could only think that they were some of the strangest looking creatures he'd ever seen. Of course, if anyone were to visit his own homeworld, he imagined that the many native sentient lifeforms on Juno IV would elicit the same kind of reaction from them. He kept quiet, eyeballing his surroundings critically, looking for anything that resembled a stormtrooper or an Imperial Commando.

He knew that the Stormies would be easy to spot. Although they werewell trained in the arts of war and killing, they were severely lacking in stealth capabilities, and the stark contrast that their armor created against any backdrop but white stone and snow and ice often made them easy to spot. Not so with the Commandos. They were deadly; as deadly as the Larry's themselves. Imperial Commandos were highly trained, highly motivated enemies that hide in plain sight, and were able to conduct ambushes in the most unlikely of places. Of all the Imperial forces that Korwin had faced during his time in the Army, the Imp Commandos were the only ones he truly feared simply for their identities.

The hike to the Imperial base took them almost six hours, and by the time they reached it, it was almost light. Korwin called a halt to their march, and signalled for Exo to find a suitable place to hunker down and wait out the daylight. It took him almost ten minutes, but he found a spot near a thin wooded area that would serve nicely. Again, Korwin was reminded of Gnazt, as they set up a defensive perimeter in the deep grass that surrounded a small copse of trees. Korwin ordered Avery up on first watch, with the second watch going to himself, and the third and fourth watches going to Exo and Nalla.

Hopefully, all would remain quiet and peaceful until they began their communications with the Navy fighter/bombers that would hopefully reduce the Imperial armor and artillery base to a pile of blasted ferrocrete and molten slag. He hunkered down low in the tall grass and laid his head on his field pack. The hard, uncomfortable points of manually triggered anti-personnel mines jabbed him in the back of the neck, but he didn't notice. He was too used to it to be bothered. After spending almost two long years in combat, he had developed the ability to sleep anywhere, anytime, on any type of surface. He closed his eyes and willed himself into a black, dreamless sleep.

Dusk...Korwin's watch, and the watches after his, had passed without event. It was time to get moving again. Only a few hundred meters, and they would be in a perfect position from which to direct Alliance airstrikes. The Imperial base was large, with anti-air turbolasers, enormous, slugthrowing artillery pieces, and row upon row of AT-STs and AT-ATs. Once they'd reached their final positions, Korwin changed his comm frequency over to that of the Naval fighter/bombers that he knew were orbiting just out of atmosphere overhead. "Mynock 12, this is Wraid 1, over."

"Wraid 1, Mynock 12." came the slightly garbled reply from one of the Y-Wing pilots several miles above.

"Stand by for target acquisition." Korwin removed his laser designator from his pack and removed his floppy brimmed bush hat, placing the device over his head. After switching it on, he whispered into his comm, "Mark, eight, four, eight, two, one."

"Copy that. Target acquired. Sit tight and enjoy the show my friends."

Korwin painted a turbolaser battery first, knowing that if they didn't do this, the Imps would have a chance, albeit a small one, of firing on the attackers that were in space. A moment later, the voice of the lead pilot came calmly into his ear. "Target acquired. Kiss dirt. Bombs away." Korwin heard the "bombs away" message repeated by eleven other voices, and sat pensively, waiting for the explosions to start. He wasn't disappointed. Thirty seconds later, twelve streaks of brilliant blue light darted out of the deepening twilight and struck home. The sound was tremendous. Almost a mile away from the targets, Korwin's ears were still ringing. Enormous, fiery mushroom clouds rose from the tarmac of the Imperial fire base, and Korwin and his team were nearly knocked over from the force of the concussions. Nalla grunted as she was forced to take a step back to keep from being pushed flat on her back.

Avery, his eyes wide, grinned broadly at Korwin, and murmured, "Shit son, that was fuckin' beautiful!"

Exo and Hakila were grinning as well, unable to contain their excitement at witnessing the unbelievable firepower that Wraid 1 had complete control of. Korwin immediately painted the next set of AA batteries and commed, "Target."

"Target acquired." came the soft reply, and another volley of laser guided, high-powered proton bombs dropped from the sky with great alacrity. The resulting explosions were just as powerful as the first set. Korwin couldn't see or hear the Imps on the base, being as far away as he was, but he imagined the sudden panic that was ensuing. Never before had a rebel force been able to cause so much destruction so impersonally. It was beautiful. For the next thirty minutes, Korwin painted targets, and then watched as entire platoons of AT-ATs and AT-STs were utterly destroyed with out a single Alliance loss. He almost wanted to cry at the simplicity of the operation. If they could have done this on Tatooine; if the Imps hadn't had their Naval fighter squadrons and Army divisions buried in subterranean bases, they could have been through with that sandy shithole within weeks.

Suddenly, Korwin felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned, and noticed Nalla, her eyes wide. Korwin raised an eyebrow in query, and Nalla pointed towards the grasslands. Korwin looked, and his own eyes widened. There must have been two companies worth of stormtroopers sweeping through the grasslands. He looked back at the base, and then back at the Imp soldiers that were headed almost directly in the direction of his squad. He quickly came to a decision. "Mark, eight, four, six, one, three." Korwin whispered to the pilots high above. "Heavy Imp force converging on our position."

"Copy that Wraid 1. We'll take care of it for you." Korwin's elation was shared by his four other troops, especially Avery and Hakila, who had experienced combat before. They knew that if they were caught by a force that size, with no hope of extraction, they'd be as good as dead. Korwin activated his designator, painting the line of Imps closest to his squad's position with the laser. "Target acquired."

Korwin watched as dozens of Imps were incinerated in an instant, as the bombs from the orbiting Y-Wing and X-Wing task force struck home. Never before had killing been so easy for him, and never before had it been so impersonal. The enemy was far enough away that he couldn't hear the yells and cries of the survivors as they scrambled for what little cover they could find. Another volley of heavy ordinance came down on the Imp soldiers heads, and Korwin said into the comm, "Keep hitting those targets. Wraid 1 changing positions."

"Copy that Wraid 1. We've got you covered." came the reply. Korwin promised himself at that moment that if he met any of the pilots of the Mynock 12 task force, he'd spend every credit he had on the finest bottles of Corellian whiskey for them. They'd saved their lives, as sure as the Chandrilan sun rose in the north.

Turning to his squad amidst the brilliant flashes of light and the terrible, thunderous sounds of the heavy Alliance bombardment, Korwin signalled for them to move out to their second designated position. Exo quickly took point, and Korwin flipped his laser designator onto the top of his head. His team moved out of their positions and and made for their next position, double-time. During the three days before their jump, each team of Larry's that was to be involved in the airstrikes had carefully mapped out their primary, secondary and tertiary places of concealment, and had mapped out routes of retreat from their zones.

Korwin and his team hurried away from the now compromised position that they'd been at, weapons at the ready, all of them in a state of extreme hyper-alertness. Korwin checked behind him for a moment, and saw Avery, Nalla and Hakila rushing through the tall grass behind him, their eyes shifting this way and that as they watched for any other Imps that might be moving in from another direction. When they were confident that they'd escaped from the chasing Imps, they crouched down and took a quick breather.

Hakila grinned at Korwin and gave him the 'thumbs-up' sign. Korwin returned both the grin and the gesture, although he was as scared as he'd ever been. They all were. He didn't know how he knew, but he knew. He could almost feel the fear rolling off of his troops. But despite the fear that they were all obviously feeling, they kept their wits about them as they continued on. The ability to function in the face of fear and adversity was the hallmark of a skilled combat soldier, and was what increased the survivability of any soldier, more than all the body armor and weaponry in the galaxy. The equipment that was deployed with each individual soldier was only useful if the soldier was able to work through his misgivings and the knowledge that his own death was literally only seconds away at any given moment.

It was almost an hour before they'd reached their next position, on a small hill that was bordered on all sides by short-grassed pastures. The hill was blanketed with thigh-high grass and tall trees, and provided excellent cover for the intrepid team of recon soldiers. The livestock in the area had fled amidst the heavy bombing and airstrikes, as the Larry's had guessed they would. That left a wide-open area of approach on all sides of the hill. If they were going to get stuck up there, at least they had an enormous killing field in which they could inflict heavy damage on any approaching force. From where they were, about three miles northwest of the Imp base, they had a completely unobstructed view of the walkers. Korwin flipped his laser designator back down, and keyed his comm. "Mynock 12, Wraid 1."

"Go ahead Wraid 1."

"We're in the clear. Targeting enemy positions."

"Copy."

Korwin quickly targeted a row of Imp walkers, and moments later, another airstrike streaked down from the heavens, raining death and destruction on the Imp camp. Even from the distance they were at, the explosions lit up the night as bright as the noonday sun, and the tremendous noise of the explosions made Korwin's ears ring. The concussions were felt minutely, but were felt all the same. The level of destruction was all at once terrible and awesome to witness. For most of the evening, the bombardment of the Imperial base from outside the atmosphere continued. The Imps had no fleet protecting Chandrila, having decided that the planet had no strategic value as a target. That was where they were wrong.

Chandrila was a haven of resistance fighters from all over the galaxy, and the people of Chandrila were some of the most ardent supporters of the rebellion. For Chandrila to be freed from Imperial occupation would be an enormous morale booster to rebels across the galaxy. Mon Mothma, the principle leader of the rebellion, was a Chandrilan native, as were many of the officers serving in both the Alliance Army and Navy. Korwin himself felt a strangely deep connection with the planet, although he knew not why.

After hours and hours of bombing, the Imperial base was a wreck of burning walkers, collapsed ferrocrete buildings, and molten AA turbolasers. Few things brought Korwin more peace than knowing that his enemies wouldn't be able to come after him. It wasn't that he was a coward; far from it. It was that he knew that his tiny squad's ability to sustain themselves in a prolonged lightfight was limited. Especially now that they had no way of getting out of trouble other than running away, which wasn't always a viable option. When the light of the sun appeared on the Northern horizon, Korwin called a halt to the airstrikes.

"Good work tonight Wraid 1. We'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Thanks folks. Wraid 1 out." Korwin turned to his squad, and motioned for them to hunker down for a day of rest. They set up a defensive perimeter with laser-triggered mines and manually-triggered mines for the person on watch, and then settled in to rest. As Korwin drifted into a light sleep, his thoughts turned to his home. He wondered what his mother was doing, what his brother and sister were doing, even as he lied down in enemy territory, with no hope of evacuation should things go wrong. Smiling briefly to himself, he thought, _At least they're safe._

* * *

"We spent the day on the hill, resting there until about 2130 local time. But we didn't get to stay past then. I was awakened just after I'd fallen asleep again from my watch cycle by the sound of an explosion." Korwin said grimly, his eyes taking on that distant look that suggested he was about to relate something unpleasant.

Laina took note of his words on her datapad and then asked, "Was your position compromised?"

Korwin nodded, and said, "At first, I couldn't figure out how they'd done it. But as we retreated from the hilltop, towards the west, we stepped over the bodies of a few Imp Commandos. One of them had a bioscanner still in his hand. The first thing I thought, absurdly enough, was 'why didn't they think of this earlier?' It was kind of strange, you know? I mean, we'd been tearing up the Imperial regulars for over a year now, and they'd just started using these things." He shook his head, the same grim expression clouding his face, and said, "Of course, the Commandos had never really needed them. They always seemed to know where to find us.

"They thought like we did, fought like we did. They were damn smart soldiers, and I'm firmly convinced that they were the absolute best defense the Imps had against us. Imperial Commandos were the most frightening opponents I ever faced during the war. They were ghosts, just like we were. You usually didn't know they were even near your position until they shot one of your troops, or tossed a grenade at you. They, like us, were the epitome of what a professional soldier should be. I hated them sometimes, for the losses they could inflict on our troops. Now, I respect them. I've met a few of them. A fairly large number defected to the NR after Endor, and there are several former Imp Commandos still teaching at the NR Recon School. The only bad thing I could say about them at the time was that they were Imperials. They were that good."

"So it was the Commandos that located you that day?"

"It was. And we had a hard fight to get out of there. We all survived, but it was a strange stroke of luck that allowed us to do so."

"How so?" Laina replied, her lekku subconsciously mirroring the question.

"Well...we went to a wine party."

Korwin snapped awake at the distinctive sound of a mine exploding. He rose quickly to a crouch and glanced over at Exo, who was on watch. Exo looked over at his team leader and said, "Imp Commandos!"

Korwin looked down the hill in the direction that Exo pointed, and saw that indeed, several teams of Imps were converging on their position. "Shit!" he growled softly. By then, the rest of his squad was up on their feet, crouched low in the grass. Each of them made eye contact with each other, and Korwin pointed to his eyes, and then down to the enemy that were approaching. Avery grimaced and then looked behind him. He pointed towards the back end of the hill, and Korwin turned and saw that they were coming from that area as well. Korwin closed his hand into a fist and pumped it up and down twice, in the signal to "go hot". As one, each of his troops opened up on the approaching Imps with a withering volley of blaster fire, dropping several in the first seconds of the lightfight.

The Imps, being no slouches themselves, immediately returned fire, and continued towards the hill despite heavy casualties taken in the first volley. Behind each group of Commandos were at least two platoons of stormtroopers on each side of the hill. Korwin cursed under his breath and took aim on an approaching commando. Squeezing his trigger gently, he felt his blaster rifle buck in his arms, and he watched with satisfaction as three bolts slammed into the Imps chest, dropping him to the ground. He took aim on another and dropped that one as well, before shouting, "Hit the fucking mines!"

Nalla depressed the trigger on the detonator several times, and the Imps near the base of the hill were nearly torn apart in the 360 degree volley of explosions that tore apart the tree line at the base of the hill. Korwin watched with sick fascination as several arms and legs were sent flying through the air. A helmeted head, completely detached from the torso of whatever troop it had belonged to, landed within ten feet of him. He turned away from the grisly sight and continued firing on the enemy. Surveying the killing fields beneath the hill, he picked out a spot that looked to be the area most thinly populated by enemy soldiers. "Fire on those Imps!" he shouted, pointing to the only route of escape that he could see. "Clear a fucking path! I ain't dying here!"

In response to his order, his entire squad moved down the hill in that direction just enough to keep any enemy fire from hitting them from behind. They began systematically mowing down the Imps in that area, and Korwin began spraying the area down on full auto. Hakila, wielding a light-repeating blaster rifle as if it was a carbine, saturated the area with a devastating sheet of crimson energy, mowing down the commandos and stormtroopers like so much grass. The fight was on. After only thirty seconds, Korwin thought he saw a narrow path opening up in the enemy lines in that area. He continued firing as he stood up into a half-crouch and shouted, "Let's fucking move! Let's go, let's go! Move!"

Korwin led the charge, sprinting down the hill, spraying the area with a mostly inaccurate volley of shots, hoping more to keep the enemies heads down while they passed than to kill any of them. If they could get through, he knew they'd be able to outdistance the Imps. They carried less weight, due to their lack of any protective body armor whatsoever. Blaster bolts whizzed by his head, buzzing like an entire hive of angry Antarian wasps. He felt a light stinging sensation on his right thigh, but ignored the pain and continued sprinting. Speed was the key. If they kept running all out, they would be that much harder to hit. He heard a cry behind him, and chanced a look back. Exo had fallen, and was clutching his right leg. Korwin winced as he saw the damage to his new rifleman's thigh. He'd been hit three times in the right thigh, and Korwin knew that he wouldn't be able to run. Avery yelled, "I've got him! Keep going!"

As Avery turned back to grab Exo, Korwin and his troop ignored the words of their squad medic and slowed to a halt to provide covering fire. Korwin looked back again to see Avery picking Exo up and hefting him onto his strong shoulders in a fireman's carry. "Keep moving!" Avery screamed at his comrades, as he began running at nearly the same speed he had been before taking on the extra weight of a full-grown human man. They sprinted through the hail of enemy fire, their heads low, their weapons blazing.

Avery's shotgun was slung over one shoulder, and Korwin immediately missed the extra firepower. Hakila slung his rifle and whipped his blaster cannon off of the top of his pack. Taking only a moment to aim roughly into the center of a group of stormtroopers, he fired, sending a blue ball of death streaking towards the enemy. The plasma ball exploded near the Imps, sending several of them into a permanent sleep, and prompting the rest of them to flatten themselves on the ground, seeking to escape the greater effects of the deadly explosion. Hakila fired again, in a different direction this time, and another group of Imps was immolated.

Korwin kept his eyes to the front, shooting at any target that presented itself, and praying to his Junoan gods that they'd make it out alive. He ripped a grenade from his harness and primed it, before hurling it towards several commandos who were spread out across a nearly thirty yard area. The resulting explosion fried at least three of them, and the concussion blew the rest of them over onto their backs. The running battle continued for almost two more minutes, but to Korwin it seemed like an eternity. Finally, the broke through the final line of stormtroopers, and Korwin could see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. They ran, and ran, and ran, until they'd outdistanced the Imps by several hundred yards. Still they ran, coming into grass that was roughly waist high. The small squad traveled at the fastest possible speed they could run at without leaving their medic and their wounded pointman behind them.

After what must have been three miles, Korwin's lungs were aching, and his thighs were on fire. He couldn't feel his calves anymore, so numb were they from the exertion. Still they continued running, not stopping, not slowing down. Fear was a great motivator, and adrenaline was their ally. Finally, the sounds of firing from enemy weapons fell far behind them, and then stopped completely. Still they didn't stop running, as Korwin turned his team of Larry's towards the North.

They continued on until they broke out of the tall grass. In the distance, nearly half a mile away, lay a large farmstead. Korwin could see several civilian landspeeders parked outside, but he didn't worry overmuch about it. Seeing a chance for a perfect hiding place, he made for the farmhouse, hoping against hope that the residents of the place were supporters of the Alliance. Two minutes later, they were in the dirt driveway, looking at a large, finely built house. Korwin grimaced at the thought of what he was about to do, but he had no choice. Hopefully, the Imps wouldn't come looking here. And hopefully, the owners of the home wouldn't immediately report them to the Imperial authorities that currently held the Chandrilan citizens under martial law.

Turning to his squad, he said, "Take cover behind those speeders." Korwin gestured at a row of landspeeders that sat just outside a well-built wooden fence, and said, "Hopefully, I'll be back in a minute or two." Nalla's lekku writhed an affirmative, and the rest of his troops nodded, Exo the lone exception. Exo lied along Avery's shoulders, which must have been burning with pain after sprinting for so long while carrying such a heavy load. His troops obeyed his directive without question, moving over to the cover of the speeders. Korwin looked at the front door of the place once, and then strode purposefully up to it. As he was about to knock, the door opened, and he was faced with a pretty young woman with long, thick brown hair pulled into a neat braid, and soulful blue eyes.

The young woman stared at Korwin's painted face, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, not saying anything. Korwin smiled hopefully, and slung his rifle over his shoulder. "Please miss. We need help."

Finally finding her voice, she asked, "Who are you?" Her voice was shaky, and her fear was evident on her face.

"We're with the Alliance." Korwin responded softly, his voice calm and even. His face took on a beseeching expression, and he said, "Please...I'm begging you. I've got a wounded soldier, and we need help."

The woman's eyes grew even larger, though it didn't seem possible, and she nodded her head, and said, "We support the Alliance. Come in, please." Her voice was still shaking, but Korwin heard an undertone of steel that he thanked his lucky stars was present. He turned towards his troops, covering behind the speeders, and waved them up to the door.

His squad stood as one, making their way quickly to the open door, and then inside. The young woman shut the door behind them, and said, "We've been hearing explosions for the last two nights. What's happening?" Her voice was plaintive, and it was clear that she was fearful that the Imps had finally decided to wipe out the rebel-supporting civilians on the sparsely populated planet.

Deciding on pure instinct that mission security would be well-maintained by these people, Korwin said, "We're going to take the planet. We've been directing airstrikes against the Imps the last two nights."

The woman's face lit up in an almost painful expression of desperate hope, and her eyes suddenly shined with unshed tears as she looked over the bedraggled, and mostly wounded team of recon troops. "Where are the rest of your soldiers?"

Korwin looked back, and saw that Avery was still miraculously unscathed, but Hakila had taken a bolt in the shoulder, and Nalla was wheezing heavily through a singed, blackened hole in the right side of her chest that he was sure had punctured a lung. He found himself deeply moved by her toughness, and he silently commended her on her strength of will. She was a true soldier.

Looking back at the young woman, he was about to respond, when a voice from an adjacent room queried, "Eris, who's there?" A tall, wiry man with grey hair stepped into the foyer of the large, elegantly appointed house, and his eyes went wide. "Oh force!" he mumbled, and then said, "Who are you?"

Korwin grimaced as his right thigh, where his fresh blaster wound was, began to burn with pain. "We're with the 17th Infantry division, reconnaissance, of the Alliance Army."

The man's eyes went as wide as the young woman's had. They were obviously related, as they looked very much alike. The girl had apparently been granted her father's fine, high-cheekboned looks. They could be nothing else but father and daughter. He then broke into a wide, hopeful smile, and he whispered. "We are to be free?"

Korwin nodded, and said, "If we have to die for it, we will."

The man's gaze hardened noticeably, and he said, "Not on my watch. Come; follow me." He turned and walked into the room he'd come from, and Korwin and his squad followed him. He glanced back at Nalla, and saw that she was now hunched over, clutching the wound in her chest. They found themselves in a large dining room, filled with people of varying ages, from toddlers and babies to old men and women. All of them were human, and all of them looked equally shocked to see the dirty, war-painted group of special operations soldiers. Korwin was instantly apprehensive at the large group of people dining around the table, but was put at ease when the old man exclaimed, "These are Alliance soldiers!"

A loud cheer broke out from all of the people who were old enough to understand the connotations of the statement. One woman, her hair graying with age, and her face lined with worry, moved forward and took Nalla's hand. She kissed it repeatedly, and said, "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

Nalla grinned her serrated Twilek grin, and whispered weakly, "Anytime." She dropped slowly to her knees then, and a short, round man stood up from the table, his food forgotten.

"I'm a doctor. What can I do?"

Korwin found himself unable to speak, and he felt unwanted tears rolling down his cheeks. This was the first time they'd been greeted so warmly by civilians since he'd come into the war. Even on Tatooine, the civilians had been somewhat leery of them. The knowledge that when the Alliance left they'd be back under the brutal jurisdiction of the Hutts had tempered their joy at being liberated from the Imperials. No such sentiment existed here, only the unbridled, unadulterated happiness of hopefully impending freedom.

Finally, Korwin forced the words from his mouth. "I've got two that are badly wounded, and we need a place to hide."

The man of the house, who had led them into the room, obviously spoke for all present when he said, "Then you'll hide here." The doctor followed the small procession of the young woman, her father, and the weary, hurt recon troops. The older man said, "My name is Yakot Kashor. My house is open to you."

The doctor nodded his head, and he said, "I will do whatever I can. I have a medical kit in my speeder. I'll go get it." He turned and headed for the door. When he'd passed from sight, another man spoke jubilantly as they were exiting the dining room. "Force be with you!" The sentiment was repeated by everyone else in the room who was old enough to understand what was happening. An elderly man smiled brightly at them, and said, "The old God's bless you! Thank you for coming here! Thank you!" There were tears shining in her eyes, and Korwin found himself saturated in an outpouring of love and gratitude. He could feel at as surely as he'd felt the fear of his troops when they'd been running from the Imperial onslaught on the hill.

Korwin nodded his head in acknowledgment, and followed the Yakot to a sitting room adjacent the dining room. They continued through, and kept walking through the house until they reached the kitchens. There, a middle-agedwoman who bore some small resemblance to the girl they'd first met, and who must have been her mother, stopped her work at a small stove and stared at them. "Yakot?" she said, the unasked question plain in her voice.

Yakot smiled broadly at the woman, and said, "My dear, they are here to liberate us!"

She turned away from her cookery and said, "They have wounded."

Korwin nodded his head, but didn't respond to her statement. He didn't need to. The dinner party that had obviously been in progress when they'd arrived followed them to a cellar door just outside the kitchen. Yakot opened the door and said, "You can stay here for as long as you need. We'll keep your presence a secret."

Korwin could feel the truth in the man's words, and was grateful. "Thank you." he said softly, his eyes meeting those of his unexpected benefactor.

"Thank _you_."

* * *

"They hid us there for almost two more days, until the main Alliance force began their landings in our zone. We had wine, and the finest food I'd ever eaten in my young life." Korwin smiled wistfully, remembering the kindness of the Chandrilans. "They really were grateful. They were so happy that we were there; I could feel it." Laina remained silent, allowing Korwin time to gather his thoughts. When he had, he shook his head, a smile on his face. "The Imps never came to their house, thank the Gods. But we were waiting for it. We were waiting."

"And your troops?" she asked.

"Exo and Nalla both survived their wounds. The doctor who'd been there treated both of them alongside Avery, and they made good recoveries. He had bacta injections to give us, and eriminol. He was able to do more for us than even Avery was. Within two weeks, Nalla was fit for service again, and Exo was up and running within a week. We didn't see them again until a K Company reunion some twenty-five years later. I went to every reunion I could, both K Company and S Company. That reunion was one of the best we ever had. The young woman who'd first met us at the door was a middle-aged mother of four by that time, and she remembered Avery and I the moment she saw us on her doorstep.

"She just kept hugging us and thanking us, and telling us how much our presence had meant to everyone there at the time. I had no idea that we'd made such a positive impact on those people's lives, but she told us how they'd found such great hope after we'd showed up the first time. Just the knowledge that Alliance troops were fighting for them had given them a sense of well-being that we couldn't have even imagined at the time. Even if I could feel it." Korwin smiled again, and said, "Eris and her family were some of the bravest people I've ever met. They gave us shelter, even though they knew that discovery by the Imps meant certain torture or death.

"They had no weapons beyond sporting blaster rifles for hunting, and they would have been unable to defend themselves against a retaliatory strike from the Imps. The Kashor family showed more courage by sheltering us than any soldier I ever served with during the war. I'll forever be grateful to them for that." Korwin stared straight into the holocamera across from him as he said this, his eyes glistening with unshed tears. "So thank you, if any of you see this."

Laina smiled, and glanced around at her crew. Motioning for them to cut off the cameras, she said, "Why don't we break for lunch?"

Korwin nodded his head, and said, "I could definitely use some refueling."

Laina's lekku shifted happily, and she said, "So could I. An hour then?"

"One hour." Korwin responded. "See you then."

"See you in an hour."


	32. Soldier 27

Thanks for sticking with me this far. For those that have continued reading since the beginning (and if you're reading this, that should be all of you...if you're skipping ahead...shame on you!), I appreciate the time that you've spent reading this fic. As I've said many times before all reviews, positive or negative, are helpful and much appreciated. So please R&R. Without further ado, on with the story!

Laina shifted in her seat and crossed her legs before looking at Korwin and saying, "Shall we continue?"

"Of course." Korwin smiled and said, "As soon as it was time for those alliance landings to begin, we left the Kashor farmstead and headed into the fields nearby. From there, we made our way south and east, away from the Imp bases, and towards our final objective. We'd been instructed to link up with the other Larry's after our two targets were destroyed, but of course that didn't happen. When we waltzed into the base camp as the infantry was setting up, Kierse spotted us and just about gave himself a hernia he yelled so loud."

"I take it he was excited to see you?"

Korwin chuckled and nodded his head. "You could say that. When we didn't make it to the rendezvous, they all figured we were dead. We'd cut off comms so as not to alert the Imps to our presence on the farm. So really, they had to assume the worst. It's hard not to do that in a time of war.

"I tell you, it wasn't a month before Kierse gave us a scare like that. Of course, _he_ earned a Corellian bloodstripe for his efforts. All any of us got was another scar and a good scare. Well, and some good wine.

"Anyway, after a couple of weeks in camp to heal up, we got our first mission warning from Captain Borlin. We'd been on light duty previous to that due to our wounds. You know, KP and latrine duty. I was never particularly enamored with the idea of marching my boys and girls into near certain doom, but I'll tell you what; it was almost better than sitting around on latrine duty in camp, you know? I hated burning shit. I don't know a single soldier who liked it."

Korwin and his small team of elite soldiers huddled around his small cot, staring at the aerial reconnaissance holos that he was bringing up on the tiny holoprojector. They'd studied all the terrain maps already, and now had a _very_ good idea of what their AOO looked like. Of course, it looked like most of Chandrila. Lots of grass, broken by the occasional copse of trees and the occasional hedgerow separating one wealthy farmer's land from another's. The holos showed numerous herds of nerf, and a few herds of a plains-dwelling variety of bantha. Bantha were a creature that Korwin was familiar with from Tatooine, but these Chandrilan bantha were entirely different. While they still had the same horns, and the same heavy, woolen coats of wiry, coarse hair, their bodies had much less bulk to them. They were shorter at the shoulders by almost two feet, and their necks were more slender. Compared the enormous beasts of burden that he'd seen on Tatooine, these domesticated bantha were almost graceful in appearance; almost.

Avery pointed to a small rise in the landscape that looked a bit unnatural. "Mark this one...it could be an E-web bunker. It doesn't fit in with the rest of the terrain."

Korwin nodded his head and marked the irregular-looking knoll for further study on their patrol. "Could be. We'll find out for sure when we get there. Aerial usually does a pretty good job of picking everything up, but they always miss something."

"So how long is this op supposed to run again?" Nalla queried.

"Mmm...four days." Korwin murmured in reply, his eyes on the next holo. His manner was always a bit distant when he first went through the aerial recon holos. He'd go over them again, over and over and over, for the next two days until they actually flew out in the affectionately dubbed 'black box'. The converted Clone Wars era LAAT was a mainstay of both the infantry and special forces operations in any Alliance ground campaign, and Chandrila was no different.

After another four hours of poring over the various aerial recon holos, as well as reviewing the minimal intel that the two infantry operations in that area had garnered, Korwin called a halt to the studying. "Alright, break for chow and a latrine break. My fucking teeth are floating. Be back in, oh..." Korwin glanced at his wrist chrono, "forty-five."

Nalla still blushed a bit at the coarse language of her male compatriots, her turquoise cheeks turning a most becoming pale, verdant shade. Still, she managed to keep her lekku still. "Thanks Magic. See you then."

As Nalla left the Blue Patrol tent and strode off towards the mess tents from the area where S Company was billeted, Exo took a long drag off a deathstick. "Man, you think she'd be used to talk like that by now. Still blushing." He shook his head and took another drag.

Korwin glanced over at Exo and said, "Hook it up with one of them deathsticks man." Taking the proffered smoke, he lit it using a lighter that was offered by a silent Hakila. Blowing the smoke out through his nostrils, he shrugged. "She was brought up good man. High-class Coruscant and all that."

Avery gazed speculatively at the entrance to the tent. "You know, I got a lot of respect for her."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. You know, her livin' up top over there, what with the Empire's whole alien-hatin' thing."

Hakila finally spoke up. It was only the third time he'd done so since they first began studying their intel for the op. "I have experienced the Empire's xenophobia firsthand. It is a terrible thing...it wounds the spirit."

Avery raised an eyebrow. "Shit, whatever you say man." Stretching and groaning, popping several of his joints, Avery then yawned broadly. He then looked at his three male squadmates. "Well, I'm off to chow; see if I can't catch up with ol' Kierse."

Korwin took another long drag off his deathstick and said to him as he passed, "Remember Ave, forty-five." Checking his wrist chrono, he called to the now exiting Avery, "Make that forty-three!" Avery waved over his shoulder in acknowledgment and kept on walking.

Korwin stood up slowly, his bladder screaming at him for relief. "I'll see you guys back here, alright? Don't be late. We ain't done for the night quite yet." He received affirmatives from both of his troops before he walked outside, heading directly for the latrines. He made it in record time, opened the front of his savanna-camo combat fatigue pants and sighed deeply as he relieved himself.

The smell of the latrines permeated the air around him, but it had ceased to bother him long ago. On a planet as hot as Gnazt or Tatooine, the rank stench of the bodily wastes of thousands of sentient beings, and dozens of species, was far more intense. Besides that, he was pretty sure he'd lost most of his sense of smell anyway. The DBP's in Mos Espa had seen to that. Even on a ship, or on furlough on Naboo, he hadn't been able to completely purge the sickly sweet stench of death from his nostrils. He was sure that he'd be smelling it for years to come. As he zipped up and stepped away from the sheltered latrine trench, he caught sight of Lt. Drendel strolling slowly along the perimeter some sixty yards away. Grinning, Korwin trotted up to him and said, "Hey!"

Drendel glanced over at Korwin and returned the grin. "How you doing Magic?"

Korwin shrugged his shoulders. "Ah hell, you know. Same as everyone else."

Drendel nodded absently. "Your troops going to be okay on this patrol?"

"Oh yeah...they'll be fine."

"_You_ gonna be okay? The leg feeling good?" Drendel inquired.

Korwin patted his thigh where the blaster bolt had struck him and offered his Platoon Leader a smile. "Leg's fine LT."

Drendel paused in his walk for a moment, casting a speculative look at Blue Patrol's 2IC. Then, resuming his sedate pace, he angled them away from the latrines. "Good to hear." A small smile appeared on his face, and he said, "I didn't expect Cap would give you the mission warning if you weren't good to go and fully operational."

"Yeah, he ain't no laser-brains. We're in good hands."

Drendel snorted, then chuckled mirthlessly. "Yeah, I guess. As long as those REMFs don't get anymore bright ideas."

Korwin sighed. Said 'REMFs', or rear echelon motherfuckers, were as responsible for Kreth's wounds as the Imps were. At least in Korwin's opinion. He still harbored a great deal of resentment over the poor use of the Recon units on Naboo. Still, there was no use dwelling on it. "Shit sir, I'd just as soon forget those pricks. They learned their lesson after Naboo."

"You think?" There was no sarcasm or irony in Drendel's voice; only sincerity. He was genuinely unsure about the disposition of the brass.

Korwin shrugged. "I figure so. It felt pretty good in the Chandrila briefing. We may have a few steaming piles of shit in High Command, but I think that for the most part they're pretty decent officers. Besides, we know Madine won't let that shit happen again."

"Do we now?" This time Drendel's voice was laced with a heavy dose of sarcasm.

Korwin stopped walking as they neared the edge of S Company's area, and Drendel came to a stop next to him. Staring out over the plains, taking in the darkened horizon where the sequined curtain of night met the deep emerald grasslands, Korwin nodded his head. "I think so. I can't go around thinking about how I'm going to get fucked over next, or how many people I'm going to lose. I wouldn't be able to do my job if I thought like that LT."

Drendel sighed sadly and shook his horned head. He splayed his large hands in front of him and stared at them a moment before turning to gaze at the same beautiful horizon that Korwin was focused on. "I suppose we can't, can we?" Patting Korwin on his shoulder, he murmured softly, "You're wise beyond your years Magic." Korwin grinned, and Drendel patted him a bit harder. "Don't let it go to your head kid."

"That an order LT?"

"Sure, why the hell not?" Drendel looked down at his wrist chrono. Looking back up at his subordinate, he said, "Hey man, I've got to get to an officers meeting. I'll see you around."

"Copy that. Have fun in there."

"Fuck you." Drendel said with a smile on his face. Korwin grinned and waved as Drendel trotted off.

Turning and heading back towards Blue Patrol's tent, Korwin kicked at the bare ground beneath his feet. The grass had been burned away for the convenience of quickly setting up an FOB near the Imperial operating areas. The Forward Operations Base that Korwin operated out of was one of five on the planet. There was one near each of the large Imperial army camps. Korwin's own sat near the one that had been erected a mere mile and a half outside the city limits of Hanna City, the planetary capitol. As he headed back towards his tent, he briefly wondered how Jenna Melara was doing. This was her home planet, and the infantry was going to be driving towards her home city in an attempt to free it from the Imps. He wondered if she'd feel anything like he did during the Battle of Theed. With any luck, this campaign would be cleaner, and more successful. Korwin pulled his deathsticks out of his pockets, removed one, and lit it. Drawing the bluish smoke deep into his lungs, he let it settle for a moment before blowing it out.

With the blessings of the old Gods, and the help of force, they would be win. And this time, the Imps wouldn't catch them in a trap. This time, they wouldn't be taken by surprise.

Korwin slipped his combat harness over his shoulders like a coat, putting his arms through the arm openings and fastening it up the front. After that, he reached down to his cot, where all of his combat gear was lined up in neat, orderly rows, waiting to be equipped. He picked up his vibrodagger and slipped it into the sheath at the small of his back. His blaster pistol came next, going into the holster that was strapped around his right thigh. Then came the extra blaster packs for both his pistol and rifle, which he slipped into the ammo pouches that went around the bottom of the thick mesh vest. He clipped eight plasma grenades onto the harness, making sure that the priming buttons faced out and down, so that they wouldn't be accidentally primed if he had to kiss dirt in a hurry.

Once all his equipment was attached to him, he picked up his green tape and began carefully taping each and every piece of metal on him, and each and every bit of loose strapping, to prevent any unnecessary shininess or sounds. In addition, it would keep anything from catching on any trees in the small woods they'd have to pass through on the third day of their patrol. Ten minutes later, he'd finished taping. He picked up a stick of greasepaint, green on one side, black on the other. He did his face and neck first, using a small hand mirror to make sure he got good coverage and had a good pattern. After first painting the green parts onto his dark-skinned face, he capped the green side of the paintstick and uncapped the black greasepaint. He filled in the blanks with the black, and then checked one more time in the mirror. Satisfied that he'd done a good job, he smeared some of the green greasepaint into the hair on the back of his head before starting on his hands. The greasepaint took him another ten minutes to apply, and then he placed the stick into an exterior pouch on his light field pack. The pack weighed about thirty pounds in all, and was filled with lightweight personnel-triggered mines, extra blaster packs, extra medical supplies, and eight days worth of ration bars and water. Down in the bottom, buried beneath everything else, was three extra pairs of olive drab socks. Dry feet were one of a soldier's best friends.

Korwin picked up his pack and slipped his arms through the shoulder straps. Tightening them down a bit, so they'd stay snug, he clipped the waist belt on and cinched it down tight to take some of the weight off of his lower back. Picking up his loaded blaster rifle, he jumped up and down several times. He smiled minutely. Perfection. Looking over at Nalla, who was still working on the greasepaint on her left lekku, his said, "You want help with that?"

She grinned sheepishly. "Could you?"

Korwin nodded. Un-clipping the waist belt on his pack, he let it slide off his shoulders. He stepped over to her and took her stick of greasepaint from her. He quickly applied both the green and black patterns, then handed the stick of greasepaint back to her. "Done."

"Thanks Magic."

"Don't mention it." Looking around at the rest of his squad, he said, "You guys ready?"

"10-4 Magic." Exo replied. He had an olive drab bandanna wrapped around his head instead of the more common bush hats that Korwin and Avery normally wore. Hakila had a bandanna as well, but his was tied around his forehead like a bandanna, and knotted tightly at the back left side of his head.

Korwin took a deep breath then, and said, "Alright. Let's move out." Putting his pack back on, he picked up his bush hat and his rifle. He put his bush hat on and waved his team forward. They followed him to the opening in the tent and outside. The sun had just set, and the southern horizon was still lined with an enchanting deep purple that Korwin never failed to be awed by. He wished he had time to stand and watch as it slowly faded to black, but he didn't. Their op was officially on, and they had to get to the black box for insertion in their AOO. He adjusted the comm band around his neck and swallowed once to make sure it wasn't too tight. Satisfied on that count, he continued walking until he and his squad had reached the landing field. The five recon soldiers picked up their pace, and trotted the rest of the way to the idling black box that sat near the edge of the large space. He waved his squadmates on board before hopping onto the edge himself. Leaning back a bit so that he could see into the cockpit, he hollered, "Let's roll!" to the pilot and copilot. The near-silent machine rose gently off the ground and began traveling forward, ascending as it picked up speed, until they were rocketing over the endless pasture lands and the great herds of grazing livestock at an altitude of about 150 feet.

Stars twinkled merrily in the dark night sky, the apparent tranquility of the night belying the horrifying violence that was taking place beneath them almost daily. Korwin stared down at the scenery rushing by beneath his feet, as he was wont to do, wondering what would happen when they left this planet. Would it remain free, as some had? Or would it be retaken by the Imps? Only time would tell. At the very least, this was another stepping-stone on the road to the Empire's defeat. He flexed his right hand and then opened it, stretching his fingers, before settling it back on the pistol grip of his blaster rifle. After a ride of almost thirty minutes, and two false landings that would hopefully throw off any Imps in the area, the copilot's voice crackled through his earpiece. "One minute to LZ."

Korwin looked around at each of his troops and shouted, "Lock and load!" over the rushing wind. He primed the blaster pack in his own weapon and then leaned out of the box a little, his eyes forward. He caught sight of the tall, wild grass that they were to drop into, and for a moment he was back on Gnazt. Turneen, Vashta, Hurstran, Jezrak...their faces flashed past his mind's eye, leaving him with a strange feeling of emptiness. He closed his eyes tightly and took a deep, steadying breath, forcing the feeling down. He'd lost many friends in this conflict, and he knew he'd lose more before it was over. It was a sad fact of life for combat soldiers in every theater of the war, on both sides. Opening his eyes again, he saw that they'd begun to descend. At the last moment, just when it looked like they were about to pass over their LZ, the box rapidly decelerated and dropped like a stone.

Korwin's stomach felt like it was rising into his throat, but it was a familiar sensation. Not so for Nalla and Exo. This was the first time they'd been inserted into a potentially "hot" AOO by black box, and as he glanced at them, he almost laughed at the nearly identical wide-eyed expressions on their faces. Instead, he turned his attention to the quickly approaching ground. Seconds later, they were in a controlled hover over the top of the grass. Korwin shoved off with one hand, dropping nearly six feet from the box, through the tall grass, and down to the solid ground below. He heard four more pairs of feet hitting the ground, and he waved Exo up to point.

Exo wasted no time in calling the move, and the five of them headed off towards the northeast, making for their first waypoint about a hundred yards away. There they waited, silent and still, until they were sure that they weren't going to be immediately ambushed. Exo turned and made eye contact with Korwin before waving the group of them forward. Normally, they would be spread out, with at least four yards between each one of them. This was to prevent a single explosive round, such as a grenade, artillery round, or mine from taking them all out. But in the thick, tall, untamed grass that grew unchecked outside of regular grazing lands, that was impossible if they wanted to keep track of each other. The distance was shortened to two yards, and although Korwin couldn't immediately see his pointman, he could follow his trail by the grass that had not yet sprung back into place after being walked through. Yes...this was very much like Gnazt indeed. And he was the only one on this patrol who knew that. Korwin shook his head sadly, then quickly forced himself to focus on his mission. He'd been over this with himself before. Dwelling on the past got you killed. Dwelling on the future got you killed. Dwelling on anything other than your job got you killed. Of course, often times people got killed regardless of what they were dwelling on.

The five-troop squad moved slowly and carefully from waypoint to waypoint, finally hiking out of the tall grass and into the more manageable knee-high stuff at nearly 0300, some five and a half hours after insertion. Exo called a halt and glanced back at Korwin. Korwin nodded his head, then gave several hand signals, letting his squad know that it was time to set up a defensive perimeter and hunker down for some rest. Hakila quickly and expertly moved around in a thirty yard area and set several mines up, so that they wouldn't get taken by surprise. Once he was done, Korwin designated watches by pointing at each member of his squad and showing a certain number of his fingers. Korwin himself wouldn't be taking a watch this evening. Normally he did, but tonight he couldn't. Too much to think about; to wonder about. He couldn't be trusted with it, and he knew it. He lied down with his rifle in his hands, his head resting on his pack, and forced himself to go to sleep. All too soon, sunset would come, and Korwin would be up again. All too soon, instant death would become a reality. Korwin was determined to put that off for as long as he could.

"It was only a few hours before I was awakened by Nalla. She'd spotted an Imp patrol; a bunch of regular stormies; and she knew that we were close to being hemmed in. Luckily, she woke me up before she blew the mines." Korwin said.

"It would have been bad otherwise?"

Korwin nodded his head, his lips tightening in an unreadable expression. "Very bad. They were moving around us, but weren't in immediate danger of discovering us. To blow the mines then would have announced our presence. There must have been close to a platoon's worth of Stormtroopers moving past us, and they would have killed us with a few well-placed grenades. I signaled for her to sit tight, to wait and see what they were doing. Every indication I had, based on the patterns of their movement, suggested that they didn't know we were there. One of them passed within five feet of use, but didn't give us a second glance. They just kept on moving."

"What would you have done if they'd spotted you?" Laina asked, her voice almost plaintive in it's intensity.

"I'd have had her blow the mines...then I'd have killed as many of them as possible."

"But they didn't notice you?"

"No...they missed us completely. Had it been elites, we would have already been in a lightfight. The Empire was running low on funding, and the regulars didn't have bioscanners. But the elites, they had them. They'd have known we were there by the time they got within range of the mines. We were lucky that they were who they were. And they were lucky too. Even if they'd gotten all of us, they'd have made it back to base with at least half of their force dead."

"Lucky indeed."

Korwin shook his head, his eyes red-rimmed and full of emotion. "Just a bunch of dead men, leaving behind even more orphans, widows and childless mothers. That ain't lucky, and that ain't the force. That's divine fucking providence."

Korwin awoke for the second time in three hours, instantly on alert. He heard nothing, but didn't allow that to stop him in his surveying of the area. After several minutes, the rest of his squad was awake as well. All of them looked to him for directions. He gave the 'all clear' signal, then motioned for Exo to take them out. Exo listened for almost a minute, then waved them forward. Each of them moved out, two of them knowing on an emotional level, not just intellectual, that the next step they took could be their last. When two, then five, then fifteen minutes passed by and they hadn't been ambushed, Korwin began feeling better about their situation. He knew that it didn't mean they weren't under the gun; they always were. But they were, at the very least, safe from any immediate reprisal for encroachment into Imperial territory at that very second. When they reached their first recon point, almost three hours into the evening, Korwin made careful note of the E-web nest they'd found before signaling to his pointman to take them around behind it.

Korwin worked cautiously, carefully, past each waypoint for that night. They made it past several live E-web nests, past several bunkers that were filled with stormtroopers on watch, and continued on into the darkness. It was why they'd been chosen to do the job instead of regular infantry. Larry's could do what infantrymen could not. They could find the threats before the threats found them. And even though he was sorely tempted to toss a grenade into each E-web bunker and infantry outpost he found, Korwin refrained, as did his troops. To do so meant certain discovery and death. To do so meant that they'd failed. For an infantryman, the pinnacle of achievement was the rush of fighting, that singular feeling one experienced when engaging the enemy in deadly combat. For a Larry, the pinnacle of achievement was finding the enemy, marking out their positions, and then moving past them, sometimes within feet of them, before the enemy even knew they'd been there.

To Korwin, the operations that each of the ground forces took part in represented different kinds of Junoan boxers. The infantry represented what Junoans thought of as streetfighters; find your enemy, then wipe them out with an aggressive preemptive strike that was designed to demoralize and destroy. The armor divisions were the brawlers; fuck figuring out your opponents weaknesses, just pound them until everything was a weakness, then send in the mop up forces to knock them out. The Larrys, on the other hand, were what they thought of as aggressive counterpunchers. Find the enemy, sound them out quietly, and let them expose themselves if they absolutely had to. Then, under the cover of a carefully crafted defense, take them apart piece by piece until there was nothing left but the empty husk of a once proud and powerful fighter. In Korwin's mind, the Larrys were shadowboxers, never showing their weaknesses, even after they'd been exposed beyond the point where they could run and hide. Even after a soldier had died, they took great care to remove them from the field; both to honor the Larry motto of 'we never leave a man behind', and to strike fear into the enemy's heart. 'We've expended so much ammunition, fired off so much artillery and turbolasers, directed airstrikes, and all we have to show for it is a couple of bloodstains in the dirt?'

But before that, before they were warriors, they were watchers. They listened, watched and learned. They did everything in their power to make sure that the enemy they faced was even more ignorant of them than they were of them. Thanks to the Larrys and their many sacrifices, the Alliance always knew where the attack was coming from. They knew from which direction the greatest danger came, and they knew where to defend first. It was an unenviable job, and it was a dangerous job. But to those in the know, in the most rewarding as well. They might not have received the bulk of the medals or military honors, but they didn't need to. A soldier didn't join the Army Reconnaissance Teams to gain glory. They joined to increase the survivability and overall lethality of every other soldier that they served. Korwin completely and wholeheartedly subscribed to this ideal. That was what made him what he was. He'd earned more Alderaani Mercy Crosses than he cared to count for wounds in combat, but had yet to earn a single battlefield commendation for courage, and he couldn't have cared less. If you were joining the LRIS teams for glory and adulation, you were applying for the wrong job.

The next day passed without incident, as Blue Patrol Team 8 carefully cataloged all the resistance that the infantry would face during a push through that AOO. Everything was marked on an electronic map and sent into the Chandrila High Command mainframe aboard the _Spirit of Alderaan_, which sat in deep space nearly a light year outside of Chandrilan orbit. Unlike some of the front line troops, Korwin never felt resentment towards High Command for being so far from the horrors of combat. He never assumed that the war didn't touch them as it touched the frontline troops. He only hoped that the information that he and his squad – and others like it - provided would benefit others in a lifesaving manner. If more men and women and aliens died than was necessary, then they'd failed in their primary duty. For nineteen year old Korwin Nalan, that was even more unacceptable than his own death in the line of duty. And so he'd go about doing his job, calmly and quietly tallying all the various threats against his continued existence, until such time as he was either unable or unneeded. He fervently hoped for the latter.

"It was a strange thing, you know? Knowing that your death was literally only a split second away and yet still being able to calmly analyze each and every situation, down to the second, and relaying that information to the pertinent authorities back at base camp and up at High Command. I know that this is meant to be a historical program, but..." Korwin took a deep breath, and then looked straight into the camera, as he'd done so few times during his interviews. "There isn't a word in any language in the cosmos, written or spoken, that can properly convey the intensity of the fear and horror that a combat soldier experiences. There isn't an image, no matter how graphic or poignant, that can convey the spiritual and emotional pain that we go through."

Laina made a few quick notes on her datapad, then said with a pained smile, "I wish I could say I understand...but I guess I can't." Then, taking a deep breath of her own and smiling, she said, "Why don't we continue tomorrow morning?"

"Sounds good to me. I'll see you in the morning." Korwin replied. He smiled tiredly and then stood up slowly, his knees and ankles popping as he did so. He chuckled lightly. "Old joints aren't quite what they used to be."

Laina smiled. "We'll see you at 0900 Sergeant."

"See you then."


	33. Soldier 28

Laina had grown up on Coruscant, the daughter of wealthy Rilothian immigrants. She'd made it through middle school and high school easily, and had graduated with honors with a degree in journalism from the First University of Kuat. She'd started dating an equally successful young human man who was an avid amateur historian, a walking library of knowledge about the Galactic Civil War. When Solarus Media Inc. had presented the project she was currently working on, she had jumped on it; more for his sake than for hers. Also at his behest, she had been the first to propose calling up members of Alliance Army Recon, which was not particularly well-known, for the documentary special that was to be made. She hadn't known what to expect when she'd been given her interview assignment, but it hadn't been Korwin Nalan. He was a study in chronological contrast; gentle, articulate and soft-spoken in his later years while the young man he spoke of during their sessions was coarse, ill-educated, and ignorant of anything but the war and how to feed a family off of crime.

It was a powerful narrative that he spoke, and one that gave Laina the chills more often than not. On the first day, before the cameras had come on, Laina had asked Korwin to be as uncompromising as possible, and to not withhold anything. So far he'd done exactly as she'd asked and instead of remaining objective she'd become completely wrapped up in his story. It was like someone had taken the most graphically violent war holodrama imaginable and had removed all the romance and all the glory, leaving nothing but the extreme bloodshed and heartache. There had been a few humorous and uplifting moments, but they were few and far between and usually colored by the pain of loss. Still, Korwin had somehow grown into a cultured, caring, tolerant individual after the war. He defied every myth she'd ever heard about both the criminal elements of the galaxy, and the hardened combat vet; the all-or-nothing warrior who put his comrades lives well before his own, but never managed to heal after his war was over. For all the dark humor and cynicism that was still obviously entrenched deeply within his psyche, Korwin had somehow become a soft touch.

And so, as the day's interview began, she found herself pulled in, as a child is drawn into a well-illustrated storybook. No longer a dispassionate recorder of the past, but also a vicarious witness to history in the making.

-Break-

Korwin crouched low in the grass, almost missing the freakishly tall varieties of the plant that were found on Gnazt. On Gnazt, a man his size could stand straight without ever being seen in many places. On pastoral Chandrila, with it's farms, homesteads, and great herds of grazing animals, it was rare for the grass to grow taller than one's waist. While for most this would be a boon, all it did for Korwin and his squad was make movement slower and more difficult. The one thing that he _was_ thankful for was the evening's cloud cover. There was no moon and no stars, and he was glad of that. The less light the better. His small thermal night-vision apparatus, which was reminiscent of a pair of sunglasses, remained off despite the dark night. His eyes were more than good enough to spot any movement. Besides, it was hard to read heat signatures through stormtrooper armor and the night-vision often produced confusing afterimages when one's quarry was moving, and that made target acquisition somewhat more difficult during a lightfight.

At present, they were coming up on a small hillock with a single tree jutting straight up from the center. With less than a hundred yards between them and the risen mound of earth, Korwin called a halt. A chill, tingling sensation ran up his spine and his palms began to sweat. He still didn't know what exactly the feeling was caused by, but he'd come to recognize it for the warning it was. A split-second image of an E-web flashed through his mind, and he signaled this to his troops. Exo and Hakila looked skeptical, and Exo leaned in close. Whispering more softly than might seem possible, Exo said, "There's no way to know that Magic."

Korwin's eyes flashed dangerously as he looked into Exo's, and the young pointman glanced around at his fellow squadmates for support. Everyone else nodded in agreement with him, until he got to Avery. Avery's dark eyes bore into his own, and he shook his head. Putting a finger to his lips in a gesture for silence, he glanced at Korwin, his eyebrows raised in silent query. Korwin signaled for he and Exo to switch. When this was done, Exo sighed softly. Avery, now just behind him as Exo took the slack position, gave Exo a short punch in the ribs, his middle knuckle extended. Korwin watched this silently, making no move to stop it. Exo managed to keep silent as the blow struck, but could not conceal the look of surprised pain that came over his face. Avery took a quick step up behind him, and whispered something in his ear. Exo looked straight at Korwin for a moment before looking down at the ground and nodding his head slowly. When he looked back up, Korwin waved them forward.

Instead of bringing them nearer to the hill on that heading, which would allow any possible Imp regulars to pick them up on bioscanners, Korwin led them around to the northwestern side in a wide semicircle. Then they began their slow, silent approach. It took nearly fifteen minutes to cover the hundred yard distance, but Korwin wasn't taking any chances. When they were within twenty feet, Korwin motioned for them to lie low in the grass. Pointing at Avery, he waved him up to his position. Together, the two veteran Larries moved to the base of the hill. They made their way about a quarter of the way up the rapidly steepening slope and then began carefully circling back towards the area they'd avoided. They didn't have to go far.

"I can't wait to pull leave. I'm so sick of being on this rock. It's so fucking country! Those damn rebels have been here for weeks, and they've barely done a thing." came the tinny, electronically filtered voice of a terminally bored stormtrooper.

A second stormie spoke. "Yeah, I know what you mean. I didn't graduate from Carida at the top of my class so that I could sit on a planet-wide farm waiting for something interesting to happen. I want some combat."

And then a third, making it a full E-web crew. "Shut the hell up. You two don't know what you're talking about."

"I'm just saying-"

"I hear what you're saying, and it's banthashit. You two should count yourselves lucky. Enjoy the fucking peace and quiet while we've got it. Because I promise you, those rebs'll be here before long, knocking on our front door. And they'll be knocking with blasters and grenades."

"Ah hell, old man. It can't be all that bad."

"Shit son, you don't know what bad is. You stupid shits just got here. Right now, somewhere out there, are squads of rebel elites. As we speak, they're surveying the area, looking for weaknesses for the infantry to exploit, finding holes in our defensive lines. Hell, I bet they've been within fifty yards of our bunker. If they wanted to, they could've dropped a grenade on us, and we wouldn't know until it was too late."

Korwin, who'd almost starting laughing as soon the obvious veteran of the group had started talking, didn't wait to hear anymore. He moved away from the well-hidden bunker and he and Avery rejoined the squad. Korwin pulled out his hand-held datapad and marked down another E-web bunker. That was six in the last five hundred square yards, with only one mid-sized patrol spotted. The area was fairly lightly defended. This would be a good place to start their major offensive towards Hanna City. After he'd put the datapad away in the small pocket on the right arm of of his fatigues, he met Exo's eyes and grinned. Giving the signal for E-web, his smile broadened at the looks of shocked incredulity from the three new Larries.

He retook the slack position, putting Exo on point again, and signaled the move. Exo took them out on an easterly heading, keeping them moving in that direction for the next mile or so. The grass was beginning to get shorter and shorter by the yard, and Korwin was beginning to feel very uncomfortable. Suddenly, he stopped. He'd heard something; a voice. It was a female voice, soft and gentle, yet firm and deliberate. And yet, he couldn't make out what it was saying. His nerves sang with a tense energy, and he found himself rooted to the spot in which he crouched. _Below...below...I am below._ There it was again! Korwin's breath caught in his throat, and his eyes darted about wildly, trying to find the source of the voice that breathed so softly in his ear. But there was nothing that he could see. Flipping his night vision apparatus down, he looked again. Still nothing. It was as if the voice came from some disembodied phantom, whispering quietly on the wind. _Seek beneath the soil, and you shall find what you truly seek._

Korwin snapped his blaster rifle to his shoulder, and nearly pulled the trigger when he felt a firm hand on his arm. Then he noticed Exo in front of him. Shutting off the night vision, he stared at his point man. Korwin tapped his left ear with his index finger, then held up the same finger by itself, indicating that he'd heard something, likely a single being. Exo frowned, then shook his head slowly. Korwin looked around at the rest of his squad, and saw that their faces held nearly the same expression that Exo's did. Hakila, who pulled rear security in his squad, touched the black comm band around his throat, activating it. "I heard nothing." came the whispered reply to the silent sign language. Korwin shook his head violently, trying to dislodge the otherworldly voice. Then he-

-Break-

"Is something wrong Mr. Nalan?" Laina asked softly.

Korwin seemed almost as lost now as the young man in his narrative did. After a moment, he slowly shook his head and met her eyes with his own. "No...no, nothing's wrong." Korwin sat in silence for a few moments. He looked down at his hands, examining the dark skin of his heavily scarred knuckles. He closed his hands into tight fists, then flexed them open. Looking back up at Laina, he said, "What we found that night...it wasn't like anything any of us had ever seen. And I've never seen anything like it since."

"What did you find?" Laina queried, her lekku writhing in a slow, sinuous dance that mirrored her question.

"Something very old; very valuable. Something that turned out to be of far more value than I could ever have imagined. It took a while to figure out what it was, but when we did...when we did, it was one of the most incredible things any of us had ever experienced."

-Break-

Korwin shook off the strange feeling, and waved his squad on. But he couldn't shake the feeling that he'd definitely heard someone speaking to him. The voice had spoken in the softest whisper imaginable, and he thought he might be going crazy. _Shit, war'll do that to you. _Korwin thought to himself as he moved stealthily over the ground. A moment later, something caught his eye. Looking to his left, where he thought he'd seen it, he was greeted with nothing but empty air and more grass. "Stang." he muttered softly. Holding up his hand for another stop, he moved up and tapped Exo on the shoulder. Directing his point man to the area where he thought he'd seen the soft blue glow, he signaled for everyone to be on their guard.

They hadn't gone more than twenty yards when there was a muted wet snap, and Exo disappeared from sight, a strangled cry escaping his lips. Korwin rushed forward, stopping just before the spot where the inexperienced young Larry had vanished. Peering down at the ground, he saw a gaping hole in the ground, opening up like the maw of some great beast, ready to swallow him up. "Holy shit." the muttered voice came from the opening in the ground, and Korwin turned his night vision back on. Nearly fifteen feet down, sitting on a small pile of dirt and rotted wood, was Exo. He looked up at Korwin and said, "There's a fucking tunnel!"

Korwin became aware that the rest of his squad had gathered around the hole in the ground and were staring down into it as well. He looked up, and met each of their gazes in turn. Hakila was impassive, giving no indication of what he thought, while Nalla looked almost childish in her excitement. For a young woman who'd grown up in one of the wealthiest and safest communities on Coruscant, this was just another adventure; one that didn't necessarily involve impending personal injury or death. When he looked at Avery, his assistant team leader and squad medic shrugged his well-muscled shoulders as if to say, "Why the hell not?"

Korwin sighed, then whispered down to Exo, "Make room then. We're gonna check this out."

Exo nodded and moved into the tunnel a ways. Nalla was the second to drop into the hole, although with considerably less exclamation that Exo. Next was Hakila, then Avery, and finally Korwin himself. Once they were all in, Korwin touched his throat comm and whispered, "Exo, move out."

The small line of special forces troops began moving through the tunnel in front of them. It's height was barely five feet, and none of them could stand straight, but that wasn't unusual for them. They were used to keeping low. Their ability to remain undetected often required it. It continued in a straight line for almost a hundred feet before turning sharply left and angling down at about a thirty degree angle. It was steep, and slow going, but they made the best of it. After about twenty-five minutes, the tunnel leveled out again. Korwin had no idea how far down they'd gone, but he was sure it was at least a couple hundred feet. The feeling he'd had when the voice had spoken to him returned, and quickly began to intensify.

The tunnel smelled of moist, freshly tilled soil and had a slight, musty undertone. It lent the tunnel a feeling of great age, as if they were descending into an ancient place that had not been exposed to fresh air in decades; perhaps centuries. One thing was certain: this wasn't anything like the Imp tunnels in the canyons of Tatooine. His night vision apparatus was still functioning as advertised, and the walls of the place looked as though they'd been very deliberately dug in the now hard-packed dirt. The air in the tunnel was moist and cold, and Korwin could feel goosebumps breaking out on the few parts of his skin that were exposed.

They crept slowly and cautiously through the low-ceilinged tunnel until finally, the tiny column of sentients came into a large circular chamber, nearly eighty feet in diameter. The ceiling in the chamber must have been close to twenty feet high, and all of them stood tall for the first time since being inserted into Imperial territory. "Kuk et'uren Vresh." Avery, muttering an oath to Vresh, one of the old Gods on Juno IV. Vresh was the Goddess of the dead. On Juno IV, unlike on many worlds that still clung to ancient religions, the deity representing death was not feared and despised, but revered. A Junoan uttering an oath in her name was akin to a Jedi whispering a heart-felt oath to the force. Korwin shut off the night vision apparatus and removed it, tucking it into a pouch on his combat harness. He didn't need it anymore. None of them did. There was light enough for even the three humans in the small party.

Evenly spaced about the chamber, roughly ten feet apart, were small torches of blue flame, held in archaic sconces on the carved stone walls. Beneath each sconce was a large ceramic urn with strange markings writ around the entirety of their circumference. In the center of the room was a large stone sarcophagus, the lid carved in the likeness of a staggeringly beautiful human female clothed in simple robes and holding an unidentifiable object in her hands, which was resting over her sternum.

While the rest of his squad remained near the entrance, Korwin felt himself pulled towards the sarcophagus. His rifle, which he'd held in his hands up to this point, was pushed onto his back on it's sling. His hands now free, he stepped up to the ancient stone coffin and stared into the face of the woman that presumably rested inside. Reaching out with a trembling right hand, he reverently traced the contours of her face. He could feel a powerful presence in the burial chamber, prodding him to do...something. He wasn't sure exactly what. For reasons unbeknownst to him, he dropped his hand to his side and closed his eyes. Clearing his mind of all thoughts and images, he allowed himself to simply _be_.

_Open it._ Came the whisper, caressing his ears gently, playing over the synapses and nerve endings in his brain, calling to him from the beyond. He knew that was what it was. He was being singled out by the ghost of the woman in the sarcophagus, though he knew not why. Looking back to his four squadmates at the entrance to the chamber, he quietly said, "Avery...I need your help." He knew that none in his squad was particularly religious other than his old friend. That was why he'd called to him. Only one with the proper reverence for the dead could assist him. For some reason, that felt right. A ghost of a smile passed over his lips, and he looked at the object that she held in her hands. It was cylindrical in shape, and had small protruding switches and buttons, giving it a somewhat mechanical look. Whatever it was, it was certainly a technological device of some kind. It looked to be roughly the length of the stone woman's forearm, and obviously had been of some importance to her when she'd been alive.

Avery reached his side, and he moved to the head of the sarcophagus. He pointed to her feet, and said, "We need to open it."

Avery's head snapped towards him so fast that Korwin thought he could have given himself whiplash. "What?" Avery whispered tersely.

"We need to open it." Korwin repeated softly. Then he said, "Why are you whispering?"

Avery was still for a moment. Then, slowly, he said, "I...don't know. It just, you know, it just seemed right."

"I don't think she cares."

"She?"

Korwin nodded his head in affirmation, his gaze once again on the beautiful face carved in stone. "Yes."

He heard his friend heave a deep sigh, and then Avery said, "Then let's get it over with."

Korwin placed his hands on the side of the heavy stone lid and began pushing. Avery did the same on the other side. With the sound of stone grinding on stone echoing in their ears, Korwin and his old friend slowly pushed the lid to the side. It crashed to the floor on the other side of the sarcophagus, causing all in the room to jump slightly. Not Korwin though. He didn't jump. He was supposed to be here; was supposed to find this.

His mind whirling with the possibilities, he gazed into the sarcophagus. Instead of the skeletal remains he'd expected, he only found a set of well-preserved cream tunics and pants, and an old brown robe. Sitting on top of the robe, shining and silvery as the day it had been crafted, lay the same cylindrical object that she'd been holding on the lid. As if in a trance, he reached out his right hand again; felt his fingers curling around the object and lifting it from the coffin. He held it in his hands for a moment, before his thumb found a small bump on its surface. He gently depressed it, and was stunned when a meter and a half long blade of brilliant silver energy sprang forth from the end. His breath caught in his throat as he realized what he held. A soft, feminine gasp sounded from behind him, and he heard Hakila softly exclaim, "By the force!"

"She was a Jedi." Korwin murmured. "She knew I was close, and she called to me."

He stared at the blade for a few moments longer, then extinguished it with another press of the button. Gently laying the long-unused lightsaber back in its original position, he slowly turned away from the sarcophagus. Exo, Hakila and Nalla had come further into the room, and Korwin said, "Don't tell nobody about this." His gaze swept over the other contents of the ancient coffin; a strange, octagonal black box and a small marble-shaped object.

Nalla furrowed her brow in consternation. "But...but what about High Command? What about the Navy? Don't you think Commander Skywalker should know? He's Jedi, after all."

Korwin shook his head slowly, then looked about the chamber again. When he spoke, it was in reverent tones, his voice barely above a whisper. "He'll know eventually. I'll tell _him_, and no one else."

"But what if you never meet him?" Hakila asked.

Korwin shrugged, as if the question was unimportant. "I'll meet him someday. I'll tell him then. Until then, we cover the hole and keep our mouths shut. Got it?"

The four other Alliance Spec Forces soldiers nodded their heads, and Nalla said, "Whatever you say Magic."

"It's time to go." Korwin said. Taking one last look at the robes and the ancient weapon, Korwin sighed. "Time to go." he repeated.

They made their way out of the chamber and up through the tunnel until they'd once again reached the surface. Korwin went first this time, and made sure to check around their position before pulling himself completely out of the tunnel's entrance. Once they were all on the surface once again, he said, "Set a charge for two hours and put it near the tunnel opening. No one else needs to find it just yet."

Hakila did his bidding unquestioningly. Once the charge was set and placed, Korwin took a long, deep breath. Then he waved his small team off in the direction they'd come from. They moved off about a hundred yards from the opening to the tunnel and sat tight, waiting for Korwin to give his orders. "Defensive perimeter." he whispered into the comm. Once that was done, he keyed his comm to the frequency used by their command. "S Blue 8, command, over."

After a few silent moments, his earpiece crackled to life. "Command here, go ahead, over." came the voice of the S Company XO.

"S Blue 8 ready for extraction."

There was a moments silence as Borlin's second in command gave the necessary orders to expedite the extraction. "Extraction, copy, bird is on its way, over."

"Copy. Over and out." Korwin and his squad moved silently to the extraction point, all of them alone with their thoughts and feelings on what they had just experienced. Korwin didn't think anyone else had heard the voice, but he felt sure that he had. He wasn't going crazy, as he'd originally thought. On the contrary, he was quite lucid. In fact, he'd never felt more sane in his life. He had a feeling that he would never again see anything like that, and he wondered why he felt that. Still, he didn't second-guess himself. It was what it was, and none of them would speak of it until the time was right.

As they reached the area that they were to extract from, Korwin barely heard the electric whisper of the black box's engines. Spotting their ride, he touched his comm. "S Blue 8, on the ground."

The voice of the pilot came through his earpiece loud and clear. "Copy that Blue. Waiting for pick up." The heavily modified Clone Wars era LAAT/i transport dropped low and hovered four feet off the ground. Korwin and his squad dashed towards the waiting machine, all of them glad to be getting out of The Yard. The Yard; something he hadn't heard since his time on Gnazt. But he and a few other Gnazt vets had begun calling this beautiful planet of emerald grasses just that. Exo, Nalla, Hakila, Avery, and then Korwin all boarded the vehicle and held on tight as it rocketed skyward. Korwin held on tight to the "oh shit" bar, but his gaze remained on the ground that was rapidly falling far behind them. When the black box finally leveled off, Korwin closed his eyes. It had started out like any other operation; had finished unlike any he'd ever undertaken. He knew that this mission would stay with him for a long time to come.

-Break-

"When I met Luke Skywalker in the medwing of the _Spirit_ _of Alderaan_ after Coruscant, I did tell him about the place. He seemed a bit disappointed that I'd refused his offer of Jedi training, but I think that the prospect of finding that old Jedi burial site more than made up for it."

Laina found herself almost breathless, almost unwilling to speak. The reverence with which he'd spoken of the place had moved her deeply. For all his modern sensibilities, he was still a man of the old ways; a man who clung desperately to his old-world religion as if his life depended upon it. When she finally found her voice, she said, "Well, how about a little lunch-break?"

Korwin chuckled softly. "Lunch sounds good. I think it's about time to feed the monster." He patted his slightly rounded belly solicitously and grinned. "It's been hours."

Laina smiled at him then. "And you never miss a meal." she said impishly.

"Ain't that the truth?"


	34. Soldier 29

Wow...it's been a LONG time. To all those readers who have been with this story from the beginning, thank you so much for reading. Hopefully, you haven't all been scared off by my rather sudden disappearance. As to why my absence lasted so long, here's the deal: I joined the Army. I shipped out to Basic Training at Ft. Benning, Georgia on January 9th, and then went to Ft. Sam Houston, Texas for AIT. I'm a medic with the 2nd Battalion, 30th Infantry Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division's 4th Brigade Combat Team. I'm really hoping to get this story finished soon, because I'll be deploying with my unit in just about two months. Once again, thanks for reading, and I hope that this chapter satisfies. I promise there will be more action in the chapters to come.

* * *

Korwin settled into his seat and sighed contentedly. His belly was full of good food, and the day was halfway done. Just a few more hours of interviews and he'd be back at the hotel with his wife. He smiled at that thought, and said, "So where were we?"

Laina checked her datapad and said, "You'd just been picked up from the patrol, after finding the old Jedi artifacts."

"Right, right." He took a sip of water and then began. "Well, there was plenty to do on Chandrila, but after the first month or so it really wasn't that exciting." He looked as though he were going to drive on, but then stopped, and said, "Except for Dilan's bloodstripe, and an incident that involved Jenna Melara."

Laina's eyes fairly glowed with barely restrained excitement. He'd mentioned the bloodstripe before, and she'd been hoping to hear the tale. Now he was going to tell it. "Now earlier, you know, I mentioned Dilan getting himself and his team into a bit of shit. That was putting it lightly." Korwin chuckled, and said, "It had been three months since we landed on Chandrila. My team had come off of three consecutive five-day long operations. By consecutive, I mean less than a three day break. We'd had a day and a half off between each operation, and we were all completely exhausted. We were promised a weeks rest by Captain Borlin, and I fully intended to capitalize on that for my soldiers." Korwin sucked at his teeth ruefully, and rubbed a hand over his hair. "It didn't exactly happen that way."

* * *

Korwin sat on an empty supply crate, reluctantly choking down a particularly unappetizing lunch entrée from the mess tent. He didn't know exactly what it was, and had thought it best not to ask when he'd received it. All he knew was that the ration bars were now being utilized exclusively for field ops, and that any troops on their FOB were required to eat at the mess tent. He took a bite of something that resembled watery itshun roots, but was green, and grimaced at the pungent flavor of the dish. Swallowing thickly, he immediately took a long drink of water to wash the disgusting substance down. Had he been back home on Juno IV, or on Naboo with Eli, he wouldn't have even looked at the mess that was piled on his plate. But here, in a war zone, he had little choice. Glancing over at Avery, sitting on an adjacent crate, he said, "I don't know how the fuck Kierse eats this shit all the time." 

Avery sat perfectly still, staring morosely at his own untouched pile of gray-green glop. "And likes it, too." he muttered under his breath. "Shit's fucking nasty."

"I ain't arguing man." Korwin said. He shoved the fork into the mess and set the plate aside. "Why don't we head into town today? Catch some R&R. We could catch some real chow and some whiskey. I hear they got good steaks and Corellian at The Nerf Pen."

Avery nodded and set his plate down as well. "Sounds cool. I could use a drink or ten."

"Alright then. We could get the team together and make it five."

Avery shook his head. "Nah. Just you and me today. Less complications, know what I mean?"

Korwin chuckled. "Yeah, I feel you." The last two times they'd gone into the town of Kerana as a team, they'd ended up in fights with other units over Nalla. A very attractive young Twi'lek woman, she was often a point of contention amongst young male soldiers trying to prove their manhood. As was Jenna Melara. As had been Danna Kreth, before her service-ending injury. "Just you and me. Nice and chill."

Avery nodded. "Nice and chill." Ignoring the plate of terrible tasting food, he stood up and grabbed his ever-present plasma shotgun. "I'll hook up a ride. Go grab our credit chips from the tent. I'll see you in a few at the landin' pad."

"Roger that." Korwin said. Korwin made his way through Forward Operating Base: Valor to the section that was kept exclusively for S Company (recon). He trotted into the tent that housed half of Blue Patrol, and walked over to his and Avery's cots, gathering their credit chips. Nalla was sitting on her cot, watching a holo on a portable holo-player. She glanced up at Korwin and raised her eyebrows.

"You going into town Magic?" she asked.

He nodded. "Just me and Doc though."

She frowned minutely. "What, so I can't come?"

Korwin shrugged. "I mean, I guess you could. But we was just planning on it being me and him. You know, old friends from home and all that."

"Whatever." Nalla went back to her holodrama and commenced to ignoring her team leader.

Korwin smirked. She was easy to deal with, oddly enough. Much easier than Kreth. Of course, Kreth had been something of a mother hen. Whenever he'd gone into Mos Espa on Tatooine, she'd insisted on being there to keep him out of trouble. Korwin smiled for a moment at the thought of his old assistant team leader. Then the smile died as he thought about the night patrol on Naboo. One unlucky artillery shell was all it took to take away her hearing. Reflecting on that as he headed towards the airfield, he thought for the thousandth time about his own fate. He couldn't count the number of times he'd been but a moment away from death. A few inches away from a blaster bolt searing it's way through his brain instead of flying harmlessly past. He thought of Memlo suddenly, who had been killed during his first combat mission on Naboo. An e-web bolt to the head.

Korwin shook his head, trying to rid himself of the negative thoughts. It did him no good to dwell on those he'd lost. He'd do what all good soldiers did. File the pain away for later, and deal with it when he had time. It was a skill he'd developed early on, on Gnazt. It was a skill that all soldiers developed; the ones who lasted anyway. You still felt the pain to some degree, but you didn't allow the loss to overwhelm you. You hurt for a few hours, then forced it to the back of your mind and thought only about the job that was required of you. If you were unable to accomplish this, then you were as good as dead. Too much pain, too much anguish, meant too much distraction. And any distraction could mean instant death.

Of course, there were those times when no amount of careful vigilance and alertness could save you. More than one of Korwin's friends had died of sheer poor luck. It happened. It wasn't something that anyone could control. It mattered not how well one looked out for oneself. It was simply an ugly fact of war that Korwin had learned to live with; something he couldn't do anything about, no matter how distasteful he found it.

Reaching the airfield finally, he shook the negative thoughts from his mind. Grinning as he saw Avery sitting in the side-door of a box, Korwin shouted, "You ready to drink Doc?"

"Shit man, I'm always ready." Avery grinned. "Hurry the fuck up!"

"I'm there man, I'm there!"

The box lifted off as Korwin took his place next to his old friend. As he watched the lush green pastures of the Chandrilan countryside rush past, he let his mind wander to his home. It had been over two years since he'd last seen it, and he didn't think that he'd ever see it again. As he and Avery winged their way to Ahlan, a small farming community some seventy miles south of their FOB, he wondered at the sudden feeling of nostalgia that rose up to embrace him. He thought about home often, but only in the sense that he missed his family. It was rare for him to reminisce about the place itself. But now he found himself missing the rains, the mountains, the forests. He even missed the distinctive scent of Tides and the Flats. He shook his head, smiling ruefully at himself. 'Too much time to think.' he thought to himself, rather ironically. As Ahlan came into view, he resolved to put thoughts of home to the back of his mind and enjoy his day off. There would be no blaster fire, no dodging enemy patrols, no sleeping in tall, bug-ridden grass. Thank the gods. Thank the force.

The box landed shortly after it took off, and Korwin and Avery hopped off and started towards the local cantina. Passing by the small, ordinary looking houses, miraculously untouched by the war that raged less than one hundred miles northeast, Korwin sighed deeply at the peaceful setting. Flower boxes hung from the outside of almost every window, and nearly every house had a small garden in front. Children ran across the wide dirt roads that crisscrossed in orderly fashion through the town, laughing as they chased each other and played. Avery glanced over at his friend as they walked. "You alright man?"

Korwin nodded absently. "Oh, yeah…you know."

"Know what?"

Korwin shrugged. "It's just kinda weird, you know? How everything is so laid back here. It's like the war doesn't bother these people."

Avery grinned. "It don't. I mean, the Imps been pushed up North from here, and they ain't got no hold over these folk no more." Glancing around at their quaint surroundings, he said, "They just go about their lives. What else are they gonna do?"

"I guess so."

Avery frowned now. "Man, you gettin' all fuckin' melancholy and shit?"

Korwin raised an eyebrow at his friend's choice of words. "Do you even know what melancholy means?"

"Of course I do motherfucker! I ain't stupid."

"Nah, guess not." Korwin ran a hand over his head and took a deep breath. "Let's just go get a drink." The two friends entered the small cantina known as The Nerf Pen, and the smell of freshly grilled nerf steaks began caressing their noses. Korwin inhaled deeply and mumbled. "Smells good."

"Hey man…how long do we have?"

Korwin thought for a moment, rubbing his stubbly chin, then said, "Six more days."

Avery looked around the interior of the cantina, taking careful note of the pretty female wait staff, and the bottles of Corellian whiskey lined up on shelves behind the bar. "Can we just stay here?"

Korwin chuckled, but didn't respond. Walking to a table, he sat down and allowed himself to relax. It wasn't often that he could do this, so he intended to have as good a time as possible. Avery sat down across from him and grinned. "Man, I'm tellin' you; this place is perfect."

Korwin smiled broadly and said, "Shit man, back in Tides you'd have hated this place. No music, no girls dancing up on each other. You would have hated it."

"Yeah, well this ain't Tides." Avery said with a shrug. "Things change."

"I hear you."

Korwin and Avery ordered their food from a pretty young woman, and had her bring them whiskey. They ate and drank in companionable silence, neither one feeling the need to speak. Silence, both quietly agreed, could be very underrated at times. After almost an hour of quiet, the hand-held radio that Korwin carried off-mission chirped and a voice came through, soft and fuzzy. He frowned at it, but Avery raised his eyebrows and said, "Well?"

Korwin sighed and unclipped it from his belt. Bringing it up to his ear, he turned up the volume. What they heard destroyed the peace they'd both been enjoying.

"Nalen, Cpt. Borlin."

Korwin depressed the talk button and said, "Cap, Nalen."

"I need you and your team in my tent, soonest. We've got a situation." Borlin's voice crackled over the hand-held comm unit.

"Roger that sir. I'll be there ASAP."

"Roger that. Out."

Korwin clipped the radio to his belt and sighed again. "Best call for pick up." he said to Avery.

Avery nodded his head. "Sounds like we won't be getting that week after all."

"Sounds like it." Korwin called for a box to pick them up and they jogged the half-mile to the pick up point in just under four minutes.

Hopping on the box, Korwin frowned in thought. He'd told his soldiers not six hours ago that they'd have a week off. Now he'd likely have to break it to them that the week was being cut drastically short. Still, there was nothing for it. Cpt. Borlin wouldn't have asked for him if it wasn't absolutely necessary. He might have been an abrasive hard-ass much of the time, but he was unfailingly loyal to his troops. No, if Borlin had need of Korwin's team, then something had gone terribly wrong.

The ride back to FOB: Valor was uneventful, and Korwin and Avery were safely on the ground within fifteen minutes. It didn't take long to find Korwin's team. All of them were asleep in the S Company, Blue Patrol tent. Waking each of them up, he quickly told them to be in the Battalion CP in ten minutes. After so doing, he and Avery headed to the CP and walked unannounced into Cpt. Borlin's section.

"Sgt. Nalen reporting as ordered sir." Korwin said, standing at attention.

"Oh, quit with that shit Nalen." Borlin growled.

Korwin relaxed, as did Avery. Meeting his CO's eyes, Korwin asked, "Mind telling me what this is all about sir?"

"Wait for your team. I hate giving the same briefing twice." Borlin replied in a clipped tone of voice.

The wait was made in uncomfortable silence, both Korwin and Avery's minds racing with unpleasant possibilities. Nalla was the first to arrive, six minutes after she'd been woken. Exo and Hakila entered together at ten minutes on the dot, both rubbing their eyes sleepily. After being put at ease by their commanding officer, they all stood expectantly, waiting for Cpt. Borlin to tell them why he'd summoned them. He didn't waste any time.

"Alright, here's the situation. Sgt. Kierse's team was sent out on a patrol last night, as you all know. Until forty-five minutes ago, everything was going smoothly." Cpt. Borlin rubbed his face wearily and then leaned back in his chair. "Unfortunately, they wandered into a mynock's nest."

A cold sliver of dread stabbed through Korwin's gut, and he softly asked, "What happened to them?"

"Kierse called in reporting that they'd stumbled onto a company sized element of Imp regulars three quarters of an hour ago. We haven't heard from him or any member of his team since." Looking at each recon soldier, he said, "I don't think I need to tell you what that probably means. But I'm not giving up on him. Kierse is a tough soldier; smart. I'm hoping he's maintained, along with his team, and that their problem is bad commo systems."

"Team wide?" Nalla muttered incredulously.

Ignoring the rhetorical question, Borlin said, "I'm acting against orders. The infantry has already been mobilized to the area, but we all know what they'll do."

Avery nodded. "Fuckin' kill everything in sight and wait for someone to tell them what to do."

"Right." Cpt. Borlin agreed. "So I'm sending you in. I could have sent anyone, but I'm trusting you with this Nalen. You and Kierse have been friends for a long time, and you know him better than anyone in the 1st light. I want you and your team to insert via LAAT and see what you can see."

Korwin swallowed thickly, bile rising in his throat as each word dripped tortuously from Cpt. Borlin's lips. It was the sum of all of his unspoken fears; that which kept him from a restful sleep each time he laid down his head. He'd lost many friends during the course of his service with the Alliance. Many of them had been good friends. But Dilan was like a brother to him. They'd been through more together than any of his old friends from home save Avery. Choking down the vomitus that so desperately wanted release, he nodded his head. "I'll get him sir. I promise."

* * *

"The preparations went quickly. Within twenty minutes, all of us were ready to roll with a full load out. No demo on this run, just extra ammo. Avery had enough equipment in his aid bag to literally perform field surgery if it was necessary." Korwin ran a hand over his cornrows and sighed, his eyes leaving Laina's for the first time during the day's interviews. "We were all scared...that's normal. But Avery and I were terrified. Not that we might die during the operation, but that a cherished brother might already be dead." 

Laina frantically jotted down the information as it came. When she looked up, Korwin's gaze was solemn, but he had a small smile on his face. "We were ready to be heroes if necessary." Shaking his head ruefully, he said, "The old saying amongst veterans is that heroes don't come home. But that's not right. Some of them...a few of them do."

The box swooped in low over the raging lightfight, and Korwin shouted into his comm, "North dammit! North! Get away from the fire!"

The pilot, bless him, took direction well. As the first volley from an unseen E-web seared it's way towards the hovering aircraft, the box swerved violently towards the North and took off. Thirty seconds later, it was well outside the outer perimeters of the battle. It dropped to ten feet above the ground, and Korwin pushed off from the edge. He hit the ground hard, but managed to roll with his momentum, coming steadily to his feet in a maneuver perfected over the course of countless operations on four different worlds. He motioned for his team to fall in on his position and gave them ten seconds to do so. Then he moved off. Keying his comm, he muttered, "Kierse, are you there? Friendlies in the zone."

There was no response, but Korwin could feel deep in his bones that his friend wasn't dead yet. Taking quick stock of the situation, he decided on a course of action. He knew what he would have done in Kierse's situation. Glancing toward the lightfight that was slowly moving towards them, he gritted his teeth and began moving further North. It wasn't a sure bet, but it was as close to one as he had. Just under a half-mile North was a shallow depression that provided some concealment from enemy eyes. That was where he'd have regrouped with his team before calling for a fire mission and infantry backup. It didn't take long to get there. Korwin was as motivated as he'd ever been in his military career.

Dashing over the open grasslands of rural Chandrila, Korwin and his team reached the long depression. There, they saw their first signs of battle. Eight stormtroopers lay dead, limbs akimbo, and the scorch marks on their armor were indicative of the burns of a plasma grenade. A quick glance confirmed that the battle had moved North for some time. Korwin began cautiously moving in that direction, his eyes wide open, his senses stretched to their limits. Almost every step found a new set of dead Imps, most killed by blaster fire.

After almost five minutes of movement, they reached a deeper depression. Here, the land folded in on itself on the Northside, creating a small overhang in the terrain that Korwin and his team couldn't see under. Korwin quieted his heavy breathing and glanced over at his teammates. Nalla, Exo and Hakila were all on their knees, providing three hundred sixty degree security. Avery, next to Korwin, looked at the top of the overhang, and then back at Korwin.

Korwin keyed his comm again. "Kierse, can you hear me? I'm out here man, where are you?"

A hoarse, ragged voice replied from mere feet away. "I'm about three meters to your right. And you're late."

Korwin looked in the direction of the voice, and found tears welling in his eyes almost instantly. Slowly, ever so slowly, a figure tore itself from the terrain, blaster pistol in it's right hand, it's left arm hanging limp at it's side. The figure shuffled forward, then stumbled and fell.

Avery's eyes widened, and then he leaped forward, catching Kierse as he fell. "Kierse, are you alright?"

A rasping chuckle escaped Kierse's lips, and he grimaced as the movement of his ribs sent searing lances of pain shooting through his damaged body. "As good as always Doc."

Avery dropped his aid bag off his back and opened it up, going straight for his dressings and bandages, when a firm hand on his arm stopped him. "No."

"What?" Avery queried.

"Not until you get my soldiers. They're worse off than me."

Avery and Korwin both eyed their friend up and down. There was a large, bloody wound in his left shoulder, obviously the result of a sniper's slugthrower. He'd been wounded in both legs, above and below the knee, and his face was a mess of bloody nicks and cuts. Avery tried to ignore him, but quickly found his patient becoming combative.

"I fucking said no!" Kierse snapped harshly, his voice giving out at the end. "Not until you treat my soldiers!"

Avery looked at Korwin imploringly. If Kierse was the only soldier up, and he was this bad, it was highly unlikely that any of his team had survived. Korwin looked back at Avery, then down at Kierse. "We have to take you, man." he said. "If you're this bad..."

"I said no."

Korwin glared hard at his former subordinate, then closed his eyes and sighed. Opening his eyes, he looked over at Avery. "Alright Doc. You heard him. Get his boys."

Avery gritted his teeth angrily, but did as ordered. "Where are they?" he asked Kierse softly. Kierse pointed with his blaster, indicating the nearby overhang.

"The only cover I could find." he muttered.

Avery nodded and crawled to the edge. "Oh fuck." he softly muttered. He looked over at Korwin and said, "Call in medevac. Five urgent surgical, five litter, no equipment needed."

Without hesitation, Korwin keyed his comm, switching to the aid station's frequency. "Bandaid One, this is Ghost Three. I have a medevac request."

"Ghost Three, Bandaid One. Go ahead." came the reply.

"Line one: Echo Charlie One-Four-Niner-Niner-Fife-Tree-Two-One. Line two: Freq. Tree-One-One-Fife-Zero. Line Tree: Five Alpha. Line Four: Alpha. Line Fife: Lima Fife. Line Six: HOT!"

"That's a good copy Ghost Three. Dustoff is on it's way. Bandaid One out."

By the time Korwin had finished giving his medevac request, Avery was already working on his patients. By the time the dustoff box arrived to evac them twenty minutes later, Avery had moved them all out of the overhang and into a position where they could be quickly carried to the box.

Avery and Korwin hovered over the last litter as the fourth one, with Kierse's pointman, was being loaded. Korwin held Kierse's hand, forcing down his tears. "You're gonna be okay man. Be easy, okay? Rest up and get back to us."

Kierse chuckled. "Shit man...I'll be back before you know it." He coughed hoarsely, and shuddered at the pain it caused him. Letting his senses clear, he gaze up at his former medic and team leader. "You need me."

"We do brother." Avery said.

The evac crew arrived moments later, picking up the litter that Kierse was lying on, and rushed him to the box. Korwin and Avery watched as it lifted off and flew rapidly towards FOB: Valor. The sounds of battle were drawing ever nearer as the Imps pushed the Rebel infantry back towards the Recon team's position.

"We'd better get the hell out of here." Avery said.

Korwin nodded, his gaze still tracking the now distant running lights of the evac box. "Yeah. Let's go." Moving off some five hundred meters, Korwin called for evac for his own team. When it arrived, the five special ops troops piled on and slouched low, as was their wont. The ride back was silent, aside from the sounds of fighting that could be heard from the now distant lightfight that fell further and further away. Korwin looked down at his hands, and then looked over at Avery. They had taken many lives, but had saved none. But Avery...Avery was different. Avery was a medic, an angel of the battlefield. He'd saved many lives, both Rebel and Imperial. And yet, Korwin knew that the five lives that had been saved tonight hadn't been saved by his medic, but by a demolitions expert turned team leader who had never touched an aid bag in his life. Dilan Kierse had done something incredible, and his team had survived. Badly hurt, all of them, but alive none-the-less. It wasn't something that Korwin thought he'd ever forget. He wasn't the best after all.

* * *

"And that's how he earned his bloodstripe. All of his team members were down within the first five minutes of making contact. But he got them all to safety. Every time he went back, he was wounded. And every time he went back, he killed his way through waves of Imps to reach his fallen soldiers. Then he'd pick one up, move them to safety, and return. He did it four times. Four times, he ran the gauntlet. And every time, he got hit again. Not a single one of those four soldiers would have survived that fight if it weren't for Dilan. To this day, I think about it. Would I have been able to do as much?" 

Laina gazed at her subject, emotion welling up in her breast. "I'm sure you would have done something, Mr. Nalen."

"Oh, I'd have done something." Korwin said. "But not that. I'd have died doing that." He broke their eye contact then, and rubbed his hand over his hair. "Well, I think I'm about done in for the day. What say we call it?"

Laina smiled gently. "That's just fine. Have a good evening Mr. Nalen."

"You too Laina." Korwin said. The aging vet stood up slowly and made his way to the door. Stopping for a moment, he stared straight into Laina's eyes. "Just think about it for a while. Think about it."


	35. Soldier 30

Hey, Hey, Hey...what's goin' on Rudi? So, it's been a little while since the last update, although not NEARLY as long as the one before that. And, it might be a little while before the next one. Deployment is fast approaching, and once I'm downrange, I'll update on that a bit further. Suffice to say that right now, we've got a lot to do (not really), and that we're very busy in the 2-30 Infantry Medics Platoon (hurry up and wait). So, without further ado, straight from the barracks of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, here's the next chapter of soldier. Oh yeah, and uh...please R&R. It's inspiring to know that people like your shit (or that they don't), and it'll help me crank this shit out. So if any of you want me to finish this by the time my deployment ends in '09, you'll send some fucking reviews.

* * *

Korwin sat down and sighed, his eyes opening wide for a couple of moments, as if saying, 'I'm ready if you are.' He smiled at Laina, and she smiled back. "How was your evening?"

"Oh, you know..." Korwin grinned. "I won't bother you with the details. Suffice to say that it was quite lovely. I hope yours was the same."

Laina ducked her head for a moment and then brought it back up. Her lekku writhed minutely, and Korwin read the motions expertly. Grinning again, he said, "That good huh? Well then, it seems like we both have plenty of fuel for this session. Let's get started."

"Alright then." Bringing up a blank page on her datapad, Laina prepared to take notes. "After the rescue mission-"

Korwin waved his hands and made a face, interrupting Laina. "It wasn't a rescue mission. It was supposed to be, but...well, Dilan had already done all the work. All we had to do was hit the blip and let the box come and get them." Smiling to soften the correction, he said, "But continue."

"After the patrol to find Dilan and his team, you went on what were mostly routine missions. When did it become apparent that the Alliance had won the war on Chandrila and that the Empire was merely hanging on out of sheer stubbornness?"

Korwin scrunched up his face in thought and ran a hand over his cornrows, in a gesture now familiar to Laina. When he answered, his tone was almost speculative. "Well, I'd have to say, probably on my last major operation on Chandrila. It occurred several months after Dilan received his bloodstripe. It was an...unusual mission, I guess you could say."

"How so?" Laina queried.

"Well, it was a bit of a skittahshoot, to be honest. A gamble, you know? Jenna had been out with her battalion, taking care of everything, when the Imps came with their last big push of the campaign. She had been in the rear, where the Battalion commander should be. But the Imps overran the lines in no time, and then they hit the Battalion CP. From what I heard, Jenna fought well, amassing quite a body count. But in the end, she'd ended up captured. I don't know the exact details of that, but I know that she didn't go quietly. It's' just not in her nature. As self deprecating as she might be, she's not exactly the wilting lily that she'd have everyone believe. She's a fighter."

"So what happened?"

Korwin sighed. "Well, after a couple of days, we managed to push the Imps back. We killed...hundreds...maybe thousands of them. A day after the fiercest of the fighting ended, Cpt. Borlin gave me an operation warning, and my team and I reported to the ops center on FOB: Valor. The briefing we received had two primary objectives. One, prisoner rescue. The other, a POW snatch." Korwin shrugged. "When it came time, we had a choice. Complete one mission, or complete the other. Given twenty-six years to think about it, I'd make the same choice now as I did then."

* * *

"Maj. Melara is being held here, at a small Imperial installation just outside Hanna City. We don't know her condition, or the mentality of her captors, however, we believe that it is unlikely that she has come to much harm." Maj. Karakes, a human officer who'd been serving as a recon officer for some two months now, met the eyes of each of the four recon team leaders in the room. "As brutal as the Imps can be, we believe that they've far more to gain from her alive and healthy." The rest of his statement went unsaid. It was unnecessary to say. They all knew what the alternative was. "The exact building she's being held in, we couldn't discern. I trust you all to remain calm, and to exercise the utmost control over yourselves when clearing buildings. We don't need any friendly fire on this one."

A subtle feeling of rancor fell over the recon veterans as the still relatively new officer implied that this was even possible amongst their teams. Korwin raised his hand. Ignoring the previous statement, he said, "You mentioned two objectives. What's the second?"

"Prisoner snatch. Sgt. Nalan, your team will be on the point of the spear for this operation, and you'll have operational command. You will likely have the best opportunity for that objective. If possible, we would like you to take an Imperial officer of at least Captain's rank or higher. We don't expect it, but do your best. I leave the details to your discretion." Shutting down the holo's that he'd been using to brief them, the lights came on and he once again looked around the room, this time surveying not just the team leaders, but all of the personnel present. "Are there any more questions?" When none came, he said, "Dismissed. The op begins at 1900 hours tomorrow."

Korwin stood up and took his briefing materials with him. The rest of his team fell in behind him and he led them back to the Blue Patrol tent. Once they had all settled around his cot, he met each of their eyes. "Alright, I know what they said. Prisoner snatch and all that shit, yadda yadda yadda. In my opinion it's pretty unrealistic. I have a feeling that this one is going to turn into a shitstorm of the highest degree the moment we breach the compound. I just wanted everyone else's input. Shoot."

Avery shrugged and said. "I agree." No more was needed from him. He and Korwin were both veterans of many battles and many operations. They knew the odds of completing both objectives successfully.

Nalla shook her head and said, "I think we should try for the prisoner. But not until we have Maj. Melara safely in our possession."

Korwin nodded his head. "Duly noted. Hakila, Exo?"

Korwin's demo specialist took a deep breath and said. "It doesn't matter to me what we do. I'm with you Sgt."

"Exo?"

Korwin's assistant team leader raised an eyebrow and said, "We'll do what we can do about the snatch. But we'll get Maj. Melara."

Korwin sighed then, blowing his breath out between tightly pursed lips. Slapping his hands on his thighs in a gesture of decisiveness, he said, "Alright then. Here's the gameplan." He proceeded to go through all of the briefing material they'd all been given in great detail, and the planning session lasted well into the next morning. When Korwin finally ordered his subordinates off to bed, he yawned loudly and rubbed at his dry, sleep-heavy eyes. His night wasn't over yet. He still had to get with the other three recon team leaders to cement the plan. It was going to be tough, but he knew they could at least get their soldier back. In fact, he was willing to stake his life on it.

* * *

"The rest of the planning took up a good bit of the rest of the morning and lasted into early afternoon. I remember getting about four hours of sleep before waking up to get everything right for the op."

Laina noted the information on her datapad and asked, "What was it like, being handed the reins on a second mission to rescue a friend so soon after the first?"

Korwin took a small sip of water, and said, "Well, it was...it was a little strange. I'd had a lot of responsibility put on my shoulders as a team leader, but each time you added another life to the equation, it seemed to get a little tougher. Still, it was a job, and I always did my job. It's not just what we were paid for, although that was a small part of it. It was the fact that this was a fellow soldier who was counting on you to make the right decisions in the heat of the moment, whether they knew it or not. It was another life, and in this case, a life that was very important to me, that was riding on my ability to do what was needful."

* * *

Korwin applied the last piece of flat green tape to the last grenade pin and jumped up and down three times. Satisfied that he'd done his best to dampen any possible sounds his equipment might make, he picked up his stick of greasepaint and began to apply the dark green paint to the outstanding features of his face. Once he'd done so, and had checked his appearance in his small hand mirror, he began working the lighter green paint into the recessed areas. When he'd finished, he checked his appearance again. After touching up the last little bits he'd missed, he once again ran through a mental inventory of his equipment. He had a full loadout of ammo on his combat vest, eight grenades, and his personal medkit. His vibroknife was sheathed securely in the small of his back, and his pistol was holstered in his thigh holster. He had plenty of water, and three ration packs, enough for three days at a stretch, although it would be thin eating. He checked his assault pack and rechecked it. Everything was where it needed to be. Glancing around at his team members, he saw them all doing the same thing.

Hakila caught his eye and smiled slyly. The Zabrak held up a small explosive device and said, "We're blowing the shit out of the place, right Sgt.?"

Korwin nodded his head and smiled back. "By the time all four teams are gone, there shouldn't be a building left standing."

Hakila chuckled. "This should go a long way towards making that happen."

Korwin almost shuddered at Hakila's feral grin. The Zabrak man took quite a bit more pleasure in his work than his former demolitions specialist had. Of course, Kierse had come to the job a bit late. All of Hakila's training had been towards that end. He was what he was, and Korwin was grateful to have once again landed a top notch group of soldiers for his team.

Once all of them were satisfied that all was as it should be, they headed for the airfield. Four black boxes sat waiting for them, engines spooled and ready to go. The other three recon teams were approaching as Korwin's team boarded their box. Lt. Drendel, another very experienced recon vet, and one of the team leaders for the operation, trotted over to Korwin. They shook hands amiably and Drendel grinned. "Well, Sgt., it looks like this is your show. Best of luck."

"Same to you man." Korwin said. "You ain't put out at being under an NCO, are you?" Korwin asked, half joking.

Drendel looked around the airfield, taking in the sight of hard-eyed, combat ready troops boarding the vehicles that would take them into hell for the thousandth time. Turning back to Korwin, he shrugged. "Hey, you know what they say. It is what it is. You've got a good head on your shoulders kid. Rank aside, I'd go to war with you any day."

Korwin grinned. "Good to know. I'll see you at the DZ."

"Roger that Magic." With those parting words, Drendel moved off to his own box. Korwin watched him go for a moment before boarding his own.

The stealthed LAAT/i lifted off quickly but smoothly and immediately accelerated towards the drop zone. It was a long ride, almost an hour long, and they flew over several large infantry camps as they neared the AOO. Korwin found himself amazed that they'd pushed the Imps back as far as they had. That the infantry had moved this far forward was a testament to the determination of the rebels to liberate this world that was so deeply important to their cause. He reflected briefly on the last three years of his life. He'd gone from a small-time gangster on a backwater deep rim world to a simple infantryman in the rebel alliance, to a respected and valued member of an elite group of soldiers. It was really such a short time, but his old life seemed an eternity away.

As it always did just before an operation, his mind drifted to Eli and his family. He missed all of them terribly, and sometimes wished that he were with them. But he wasn't with them, and he wouldn't be until the Empire was defeated. This was a fight to the finish. Everyone was in it for the long haul, and everyone else missed their loved ones just as much as he did. Pushing aside his thoughts of his girl and his mother and siblings, he forced himself to focus on the job at hand.

The operation was easily one of the most daunting he'd ever undertaken. On any mission, there was the possibility of combat. But on this one, it was assured. Never before had he assailed an enemy compound so directly. It was going to be difficult. Here, there would be many soldiers. The first shot was going to stir up a mynocks nest, Korwin knew. The combat would be fierce and bloody, and people would die; likely on both sides. He only hoped it wouldn't be anyone he knew well.

The box began to descend rapidly, and Korwin blinked rapidly for a moment, coming out of his reverie. In the distance, some one thousand meters away, Korwin saw the lights of the sprawling compound. Speaking softly, his comm unit picking up the vibrations of his vocal chords, Korwin said, "Alright everyone, eyes up. We're here. Keep a low profile, and don't engage unless you are seen or I tell you to take the shot. Got it?" Waiting until all four team leaders had reported in that they understood, he added. "May the force be with you. Good luck. Let's all come back alive."

The box finally dropped to within three feet of the tops of the tall, waving grasses of the pastoral Chandrilan countryside. Korwin shoved off from the edge of the box and hit the ground rolling. Once his team was assembled and all of the other team leaders had reported in, Korwin said, "Alright, you know where to go. Move to your assigned positions and wait for my command."

Exo took point, and Korwin's team carefully moved off in the direction of the compound. The going was slow, but easy. They passed no roving patrols, and there was no sign of Imp Elites in the area. Korwin thanked the gods for that. The Imp Elites were the bane of every recon man in the alliance. Just as skilled, stealthy, and deadly as they were, the Imp Elites were a harbinger of death. Korwin had never once escaped from an encounter with them without at least one casualty on his team.

After what seemed like forever, they were within sight of the fenced in compound. As he'd thought, it was heavily guarded. He could see stormtroopers patrolling back and forth behind the tall fences, and spotlights zigzagged back and forth across the grasslands, the light stretching as far as two hundred meters from the the compound..

Exo looked back at Korwin, who gave him the signal to move on. Exo took a deep breath and then began running as quietly as he could, dodging spotlights as he went. Korwin followed him after a count of five, and the rest of the team followed. They reached the edge of the grasses in short order, and Korwin surveyed the area in front of him. The grass was cut away for nearly fifty meters from the edge of the fence, creating a dangerous open space that they would have to cross. Waiting for the next spotlight to pass, Korwin waved his team forward. They dashed ahead as quickly as they could, and arrived at the fence one after the other, all of them breathing hard from the exertion and adrenaline. Hakila stepped up to the fence and applied several breaching strips to it. Licking his finger, he ran the moist digit down each one, then turned his eyes away. They flashed brightly, but silently, and Exo kicked in the destroyed portion of fencing, allowing them through.

As soon as it came free, a loud klaxon began blaring throughout the compound. "Fuck!" Korwin muttered emphatically. "All teams, go, go, go!" In any other operation, they'd have immediately retreated upon the alarm being sounded. But not now. Not when Melara's life was on the line. It was now or never, do or die. Korwin's team rushed through, and he grimaced as he saw lights coming on all over the compound. The recon squad dashed to the nearest building, flattening themselves against the wall. Korwin heard blaster fire, as a lightfight broke out in a nearby corner of the Imperial FOB. He peeked around the corned of the building, and then pulled back. Glancing at each member of his team, he nodded his head. "Go hot, go hot!" he shouted. Leaning around the corner, Korwin sent a stream of blaster bolts at the nearest approaching Imp, dropping him. Hakila stepped around the corner, raising the light repeating blaster he'd chosen for this mission, and firing a steady burst at several stormtroopers that were running towards their position.

Waving his team towards the next building, he yelled, "Move, move!" They bounded forward steadily, each of them providing cover for the next as they came to their new place of cover. Korwin looked ahead and saw a stack of durasteel crates next to one of the buildings. As Hakila reached the team, Korwin waved him forward toward the crates. "Take cover there and give me some suppressive fire!"

Hakila continued on as ordered, and Korwin dashed into the middle of the dusty lane between the building his team was covering behind and the one across from it. Dropping into a prone position, he began firing three-round bursts at the swarm of stormtroopers that was steadily advancing. He dropped one, then another, as blaster bolts slammed into the ground all around him, turning the dirt to glass wherever they touched. Hakila reached the crates and set the light repeater up on the small attached bipod, resting it on the furthest crate from the wall. Crouching a bit so as to lower his silhouette, he directed a withering hail of fire into the heart of the approaching Imperial mass. Korwin popped to his feet and dashed to the next building up on the opposite side of the street. A stormtrooper took aim as he ran and fired several shots, all of them coming too close for comfort, before Hakila spotted him and drained him with burst of red death. Nalla advanced next, moving to a building opposite Korwin, and then came Hakila, and finally Avery.

Korwin leaned around the corner to trigger a burst of bolts at a stormtrooper in the middle of the street, but was immediately forced back behind cover by a stream of large yellow bolts. "E-web!" he heard across the comm. There was a momentary break in the firing, and then it started up again, this time directed at Hakila. Korwin watched as his man jumped to the right, taking his weapon with him. A bolt just missed his lower leg. What would have been a debilitating injury was narrowly avoided by the alert soldier. Hakila scrabbled for the cover of the nearby ferrocrete structure that the crates were stacked against and stood up, leaning his back against the wall. Now that they had effective covering fire, the stormtroopers began advancing more quickly. Korwin yanked a plasma grenade from his vest and took a deep breath. Pulling the safety pin, he counted to three and then leaned around the corner again and hurled it at four charging Imps. It exploded just before it hit the ground, throwing the white-armored bodies like rag dolls in every direction.

Suddenly, a world-shaking explosion went off from a nearby area of the camp, setting the ground to trembling and nearly shattering Korwin's eardrums. There was a sudden lull in the firing of the E-web, and Avery took advantage of it. Stepping out and exposing himself for a dangerous moment, the recon medic took aim on the man operating the huge blaster weapon and fired. Four blaster bolts struck the stormtroopers in the chest, sending him reeling back into his compatriot who monitored the power levels in the weapon. Korwin, seeing this, rushed forward as Hakila once again began laying down covering fire. Pulling the pin on a second grenade, he threw it as hard as he could. The small explosive flew nearly fifty meters through the air; not far enough to reach the e-web, but far enough to take out four stormtroopers that were moving to the cover of a nearby building.

Korwin ducked behind cover again, and checked his blaster pak. Seeing that he still had plenty of ammo left in the magazine, he turned the corner again and did what he and the other recon soldiers called 'spray and pray'; that is, a blind spray of bolts around the area of agression. Again, there was a lull in the fire. Korwin peeked around the corner, and saw dead stormtroopers everywhere. The two remaining E-web gunners were moving to take control of the weapon, and he shouted, "Hit the E-web!"

Without hesitation, all of his soldiers broke from cover and doused the area around the E-web with a maelstrom of blaster bolts. Korwin didn't know who got the killing shots; there were too many bolts flying around the space. But both of the remaining members of th E-web crew dropped dead, riddled with bolts. "Move forward!" he shouted into the comm. Korwin and his team rushed the position. Hakila stopped for a moment by the E-web and dropped a small, remote detonated demo charge. Once they'd advanced some fifty meters past it, he triggered it. It was a small blast, but it was enough to render the weapon unusable by the enemy.

The way was clear, at least as far as Korwin could see. He waved his team forward. They reached the next building with a minimum of resistance, having already killed most of the Imps in their sector. Another explosion rocked the base, and Korwin steadied himself before he fell from the earth-shaking intensity of the blast. He ordered his troops to stack up on the door, then nodded his head. Third in line, he watched as Hakila set a door-breaching charge. _This is it._ Korwin thought to himself. This was the building that she was in. Or she was supposed to be, at least. He closed his eyes, and a vision of Eli swept over him without warning. He saw her with perfect clarity. Her beautiful, dazzling smile. Her vivid green eyes. Her perfectly tanned skin and lush auburn hair. He breathed deeply of her scent, and was inundated with the fragrance of cinnamon and vanilla. He began to shake, ever so slightly, and his body hitched convulsively with a choked off half-sob. "Magic, you okay?"

Shaking his head, Korwin nodded over at Hakila. "Yeah, I'm good." Taking another deep breath, Korwin forced himself back into the moment. There was no smile; no green eyes; no calming presence. There was death. Korwin steeled himself to do his job, and readied himself to kill yet again. Just as he did this, Exo rocked back, leaning into Nalla, who leaned into Avery. Avery leaned into Korwin, and Korwin leaned back into Hakila. Hakila detonated the charge, and the door blew violently inward. Exo followed it without hesitation, followed by the rest of the team. As Korwin dashed in, fourth in line, the sound of blaster fire was conspicuously absent. As he swept his rifle to the right corner of the antechamber that he entered, before sweeping it back to the center, he saw the bodies of five stormtroopers, and one young man in the uniform of an Imperial Army Captain. The man was missing his entire lower body, and one of his arms. The breaching charge had literally torn the unarmored man apart. Forcing himself to look away from the face of the dead man, Korwin called out, "Report!"

"One up!" Exo called.

"Two up!" came Nalla's voice.

"Three up!" Avery said tersely.

"Four up!" Korwin said.

"Five up!" Hakila was the last to report in, as the last man in.

Korwin signaled for another stack along the opening of the hallway. This time, he took the lead. He yanked a grenade from his vest and pulled the pin. Counting to three, he flung it violently down the long hallway. It landed at the end, ricocheting off a wall and down one of its branches. A millisecond later, there came the loud explosion they'd been waiting for. Rocking backward to start the entry, Korwin waited until the return push from Hakila propelled him around the corner. There were no other doors in the hallway, and Korwin immediately felt the closeness of the space that he was in. A 'fatal funnel' they called these areas. Hallways and doorways. Places with no avenue of escape, where a concentrated burst of blaster fire, or a single grenade, could take out an entire team in less than a second. As Korwin rushed down the fifty meter long hallway, his most immediate fear materialized in the form of a hastily thrown plasma grenade. His eyes widening with sudden fear, Korwin shouted, "GRENADE!!!!" No one dropped...it was useless here. Korwin reacted without thinking, his foot cocking back and then coming forward in a powerful kick. The grenade went flying back the way it came, and Korwin stopped only long enough for it to detonate.

Rushing forward to the sound of agonized screams, Korwin reached a corner. It turned left. Sprawled there, writhing on the ground, was a single stormtrooper, his voice hoarse through the speaker in his helmet. Korwin didn't give Avery the opportunity to save him. He pointed his rifle at the man's head as he passed and triggered a burst, sending three killing bolts directly into his head. Without stopping, Korwin dashed down the hallway. It wasn't far now. Two more turns...that was it. He didn't know how he knew, but somehow he did. They reached a set of double doors, and Korwin again signaled for a stack. Just as they were about to breach, they heard the report of a blaster pistol. Korwin didn't hesitate. He opened the doors himself and rushed in, leading with his rifle. But there was no threat. Standing in the center of the room was an exhausted Jenna Melara, her face haggard and sad. On the floor at her feet lay a man who resembled her somewhat, a blaster pistol in his hand, and a smoking hole in his head. Without saying a word, Korwin touched her on the shoulder.

Jenna turned to him, her face expressionless. He narrowed his eyes, then pointed to the pistol. "Take it."

Jenna seemed as if she might disobey, but Korwin gave her a shove in the direction of the body. "You need it more than he does."

Nodding without speaking, Jenna picked up the weapon. Korwin didn't wait for her to give any orders. This wasn't her operation. It was his. And it was his area of expertise. He'd get her to the box, come hell or high water. He dashed out of the room, his team hot on his heels, Hakila prodding Jenna along in front of him. She seemed strangely withdrawn, almost numb. He didn't know what was wrong with her, but she bore no obvious signs of torture. As they came back to the main hallway, Korwin saw two stormtroopers at the end, waiting. Not allowing them time to react, he aimed quickly and depressed the trigger on his rifle. One fell, quickly followed by the next. If he was nothing else, Korwin was an efficient killer. In less than six seconds, he'd passed the threshold of the hallway and had made it outside.

"Junta zero-one, this is Kilo one-three. Package is intact. Repeat, package is intact. Requesting vehicle for delivery, over."

"Kilo one-three, this is Junta zero-one. That's a good copy. Delivery speeder is on its way, over."

"Roger that. Will rendezvous as planned. Out."

Korwin glanced over at Jenna. She was staring at him, somewhat blankly. Somehow, he knew that her distraction had to do with the dead man in the room they'd found her in. He'd looked like her. Korwin didn't want to guess at their relation. So he didn't. It wasn't his problem. It wasn't his business. It wasn't his to know. If his dear friend wanted to tell him about it, she would do so in her own time. Until then, he'd dutifully forget what he'd seen, remebering only when it was convenient for Jenna.

There was little resistance on the way to the gates. Most of the enemy troops had been distracted by the rather large explosions on the other side of the camp. And, as Korwin was quickly informed, they'd been summarily cut down. All of the team leaders under his command reported in as the box that would take Korwin and his team, as well as Jenna, back to safety, landed. No one had been killed, although several had been wounded. Nothing serious though. As Korwin boarded the box, last as always, he looked to Jenna. She was staring at him, her expression a strange mix of anger, sadness and gratitude. Korwin nodded slowly, then looked back towards the smoking ruins of the Imperial base as the box took off and rocketed towards safety. It wasn't his business to know. And so he'd leave Jenna to her emotions. Maybe someday she'd tell him what it was all about. But not now. And he didn't care to know...not now.

* * *

"I spent the rest of that ride in complete silence. When we landed, Jenna grabbed on to me and sobbed like a little girl who'd lost the most precious thing in the world. But I didn't ask. And she didn't tell."

Laina nodded and noted all of this on her datapad. "Did you ever find out what had happened?" she asked.

"Oh yes. It took almost twenty years, but she told me. Of course, I already had a pretty good idea of what had gone down. I just didn't feel the need to say anything before then. As I said, it wasn't my business, it was hers. The only thing I needed to know was that I had completed my mission successfully. Having done that, I was good to go."

"Well then, on that note, why don't we break for lunch?" Laina asked pleasantly.

"Sounds lovely to me!" Korwin said, patting his slightly rounded belly. "I can always use a good meal."


End file.
